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THE BOY MAGICIAN 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 

A LARGE NUMBER OF THE LATEST AND BEST TRICKS 
CAREFULLY SELECTED FOR THE RISING 
GENERATION OF CONJURERS. 

BY 

RAYMOND DIXIE 
Ace of Magicians, 



FULLY ILLUSTRATED 




LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 

BOSTON 



Copyright, 1922, 
By LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 



All Rights Reserved 



THE BOY MAGICIAN. 



Printed in U. S. A. 

SEP - 



©:;i,A883119 



FOREWORD 



During the course of my professional career, which has 
covered a period of nearly twenty years, I have had the 
pleasure of performing before numerous audiences composed 
of boys and girls. Invariably they were keen to know how 
the tricks were done. 

Now, it is considered very bad ethics among the conjuring 
fraternity to expose even a single trick, and, while it is not 
necessarily harmful in itself to do so, it does, as a matter of 
fact, detract from the mystery of all the other tricks per- 
formed during the same exhibition. To explain, however, 
by private lessons or in book form how to do the tricks is 
taken by magicians in general to be perfectly legitimate 
and correct. 

I have had the thought in mind these many seasons of 
writing a treatise which would be especially suitable for the 
beginner in magic, and which would embody a choice collec- 
tion of tricks. This I have at last succeeded in accomplish- 
ing in the present work. The tricks explained herein have 
been selected from over a thousand in my own repertory. 

Before concluding, I want to say a few words as to the 
practice of magic itesK. If you are really interested in it, 
you should buy whatever you need in the way of artifices, 
devices, and apparatus from makers of and dealers in mag- 
ical suppHes rather than try to make them yourself. In 



6 



FOREWORD 



both America and Europe there are many such firms. 
Among the oldest houses are Messrs. A. W. Gamage, Ltd., 
Holbom, London, E. C. i., England, Messrs. Martnika and 
Co., 304 West 34th Street, New York, N.Y., and Petrie-Lewis 
Mfg. Co., 157 VaUey Street, New Haven, Conn. For numer- 
ous other dealers I refer you to the advertisements appearing 
in The Magician^ s Monthly^ a journal of magic and mystery 
pubHshed by Messrs. Gamage, Ltd., as above, and The 
Sphinx, the oflEcial organ of the Society of American Magi- 
cians, edited and pubHshed by Dr. A. M. Wilson, 1007 
Main Street, Kansas City, Mo., U. S. A. 

R. D. 



CONTENTS 



PART I. THE LATEST CARD TRICKS: 

Chapter I. Tricks with Prepared Cards 19 

II. Card Tricks with Apparatus 32 

III. Mental Card Magic 49 

IV. Card Sleights of Skill 61 

PART II. THE LATEST COIN TRICKS: 

Chapter V. Parlor Tricks with Coins 77 

VI. Coin Tricks with Apparatus 87 

Vn. Sleights with Coins 100 

Part III. THE BEST TRICKS WITH BALLS: 

Chapter VIII. Ball Tricks with Apparatus 113 

IX. The Latest Ball Tricks 121 

Part IV. CLEVER TRICKS WITH EGGS: 

Chapter X. Egg Tricks with Apparatus ^ 131 



Part V. UP-TO-DATE HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS: 

Chapter XL Handkerchief Productions and Vanishments . 143 
XII. Handkerchief Tricks New and Novel . . . 150 

Part VI. EXPERIMENTS WITH THE WAND: 
Chapter XVI. The Use of and Tricks With the Wand . . 165 

Part VH. VARIOUS AND DIVERS OTHER TRICKS: 



Chapter XIV. Tricks with Artifices and Apparatus . . .179 

Part VIII. SPIRIT TRICKS, MANIFESTATIONS, ETC.: 

Chapter XV. Tricks for a Spirit Seance 195 

7 



LIST OF TRICKS 



TRICKS WITH CARDS. 



PAGE 

Prepared Cards 19 

Phantom Cards 19 

Changing-Spot Cards 21 

Elusive Ace , 24 

Ghost Cards 26 

Simple Way to Force a Card . 29 

Wizard Pack of Cards 30 

Mechanical Cards . . . .... 32 

Moving-Pip Card 32 

Changing-Flap Card 34 

Restored Card 36 

Card Apparatus 38 

Changing-Card Box 38 

The Frame of Aladdin (Sand Frame) 41 

La Houlette or Rising Cards 43 

Second-Sight Card-Reading Test 49 

Thought-Reading Card Test 50 

Mind-Reading Card Test 51 

Mnemonic Pack of Cards 53 

Marion's Mind-Reading Card Trick 57 

Way to Force a Card 61 

Way to Make the Pass 63 

Way to Palm a Card 65 

A Single Card , . . . . 65 

A Dozen Cards 66 

Back and Front Palm , , 67 

9 



10 LIST OF TRICKS 

PAGE 

Way to do Card Ruffles 67 

Springing or Elongating the Pack 71 

Running Cards Up Your Arm 72 

Cascade or Fall of Cards 72 

Projectile Cards 73 

Boomerang Cards 74 

TRICKS WITH COINS. 

Magnetized Coin . ~ . 77 

Illusive Coin 78 

Changing Coin 79 

Multiplying Coin . 80 

Appearing Card on a Coin 81 

Wireless Coin 81 

Vanishing Coin 83 

Chinese Coin Trick 84 

Disappearing Coin 87 

Coin in the Ball of Yam 91 

Vanishing Shilling 92 

Travelling Coin 89 

Spirit Rapping Coin 94 

Multiplying Coin Plate 95 

Appearing Coin Wand 97 

Various Ways to Palm a Coin . 100 

Straight Palm 100 

Third-Finger Palm loi 

Wand Pahn 102 

Thumb Palm 102 

Middle-Finger Palm 102 

Two-Finger Palm 102 

Continuous Front and Back Pahn 104 

French Drop, or Tornique 105 

Aerial Treasury , , , , 107 



LIST OF TRICKS il 
TRICKS WITH BALLS. 

PAGE 

Magic Ball and Vase 113 

Obedient Ball . 116 

Obedient Orange 118 

New Obedient Ball 119 

Fade-Away Ball 121 

Appearing and Disappearing Ball 122 

Chameleon Billiard Balls 123 

Latest Billiard Ball Production 126 

TRICKS WITH EGGS. 

To Change a Handkerchief Into an Egg 131 

Ting-a-Ling Egg Trick 133 

Recent Egg-Bag Trick 135 

Latest Egg-Bag Trick 137 

Latest Egg Production 139 

TRICKS WITH HANDKERCHIEFS. 

Methods of Producing Handkerchiefs 143 

Production from the Armpit 143 

Production from a Match-Box 143 

Finger-Shell Production 145 

Extra-Finger Production 145 

Methods of Vanishing Handkerchiefs 146 

Vanishing with a Wand 146 

Rubber Ball Vanisher 146 

Bautier Pull Vanisher 147 

Elastic Cord Pull Vanisher 148 

Phantom Handkerchief 150 

Enchanted Handkerchief 151 

Color-Changing Handkerchiefs 156 

Penetrating Handkerchiefs . . . IS9 



12 



LIST OF TRICKS 



TRICKS WITH THE WAND. 

PAGE 

Use of the Wand . 165 

Gravity Defying Wand 166 

Juggler's Wand 167 

Multiplying Wand 167 

Obedient Ring 170 

Floating Wand 173 

VARIOUS OTHER TRICKS. 

Color-Changing Die ............. 179 

Rising Pencil 180 

Magical Tumblers 183 

Bottomless Tumbler 183 

Mirror Tumbler 184 

Flying Glass of Water 186 

Chinese Rice Bowls 189 

SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS. 

Siberian Transport Chain Escape 195 

Spirit Whistle 197 

Spirit Slate- Writing 199 

The Great Dictionary Test 201 

Famous Spirit Thumb Tie 203 

Spirit Rapping Wand , 205 

Spirit Talking Hand 207 

Spirit Talking Skull 209 

Spirit Table Seance in the Light .210 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PACK 

Fig. I — The Phantom Cards 20 

Fig. 2 — The Phantom Cards 21 

Fig. 3 — The Changing-Spot Cards 22 

Fig. 4 — The Changing-Spot Cards 23 

Fig. 5 — The Elusive Ace 25 

Fig. 6 — The Ghost Cards 27 

Fig. , 7 — The Wizard Pack . . . ; 30 

Fig. 8 — The Moving-Pip Card 33 

Fig. 9 — The Changing-Flap Card 35 

Fig. 10 — The Restored Card 36 

Fig. II — The Changing-Card Box 39 

Fig. 12 — The Sand Frame 41 

Fig. 13 — The Rising Cards (First Method) 44 

Fig. 14 — The Rising Cards (Second Method) 45 

Fig. 15 — The Rising Cards (Third Method) ..... 46 

Fig. 16 — The Self-Memorizing Pack 55 

Fig. 17 — How to Force a Card 62 

Fig. 18 — How to Make the Pass 64 

Fig. 19 — How to Palm a Card 65 

Fig. 20 — How to Back Palm a Card 68 

Fig. 21 — How to Front Palm a Card . 70 

Fig. 22 — Elongating the Pack 70 

Fig. 23 — Arm Manipulation . 71 

Fig. 24 — The Cascade 72 

Fig. 25 — The Projectile and Boomerang Cards 73 

Fig. 26 — The Balancing Coin 78' 

Fig. 27 — The Shell Coin 79 

Fig. 28 — The Wireless Coin 82 

13 



14 ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Fig. 29 — The Vanishing Coin 83 

Fig. 30 — The Chinese Coin Trick 85 

Fig. 31 — The Disappearing Coin Box 88 

Fig. 32 — The Mystic Ball of Yam 90 

Fig. 33 — The Vanishing Shilling 91 

Fig. 34 — The Travelling Coin 93 

Fig. 35 — The Spirit Rapping Coins . 94 

Fig. 36 — The Multiplying Coin Plate 96 

Fig. 37 — The Appearing Coin Wand 98 

Fig. 38 — How to Palm a Coin loi 

Fig. 39 — The Third-Finger Palm loi 

Fig. 40 — The Thumb Pahn 102 

Fig. 41 — The Middle-Finger Pahn 103 

Fig. 42 — The Two-Finger Palm 103 

Fig. 43 — The Continuous Front and Back Coin Palm , . . 104 

Fig. 44 — The French Drop 106 

Fig. 45 — To Disappear and Reappear a Coin 107 

Fig. 46 — The Production of Coins , \ . 108 

Fig. 47 — The Magic Ball and Vase 114 

Fig. 48 — The Origmal Obedient Ball . .117 

Fig. 49 — Artifice for the Obedient Orange 118 

Fig. 50 — The New Obedient Ball 119 

Fig. 51 — The Fade-Away Ball .121 

Fig. 52 — The Appearing and Disappearing Ball .... 123 

Fig. 53 — The Chameleon Billiard Balls 124 

Fig. 54 — The Latest Billiard Ball Production 127 

Fig. 55 — - Changing a Handkerchief into an Egg . . . .132 

Fig. 56 — The Ting-a-Lmg Egg Trick 134 

Fig. 57 a New Egg-Bag Trick 136 

Fig. 58 — The Latest Egg-Bag Trick 138 

Fig. 59 — The Latest Egg Production .139 

Fig. 60 The Match-Box Production . 144 

Fig. 61 The Finger Shell Production 144 

Fig. 62 — The Extra Finger Production 145 

Fig. 63 — How to Hold the Handkerchief 146 



ILLUSTRATIONS IS 

• PACE 

Fig. 64 — The Bautier Pull Vanisher 148 

Fig. 65 — The Phantom Handkerchief 151 

Fig. 66 — The Enchanted Handkerchiefs 152 

Fig. 67 — The Enchanted Handkerchiefs 154 

Fig. 68 — The Enchanted Handkerchiefs 155 

Fig. 69 — The Color-Changing Handkerchiefs 157 

Fig. 70 — The Penetrating Handkerchiefs 160 

Fig. 71 — The Gravity Defying Wand 166 

Fig. 72 — The Juggler's Wand 168 

Fig. 73 — The Multiplying Wand 169 

Fig. 74 — The Obedient Ring 171 

Fig. 75 — The Floating Wand 174 

Fig. 76 — The Color-Changing Die 179 

Fig. 77 — The Rising Pencil 181 

Fig. 78 — The Mirror Tumbler 184 

Fig. 79 — The Flying Glass of Water 187 

Fig. 80 — The Chinese Rice Bowls i8q 

Fig. 81 — The Siberian Transport Chain 196 

Fig. 82 — The Spirit Whistle 198 

Fig. 83 — The ''Spirit Slates 200 

Fig. 84 — The Spirit Thumb Tie , . 204 

Fig. 85 — The Spirit Rapping Wand . 206 

Fig. 86 — The Spirit Talking Hand 208 

Fig. 87 — The Spirit Talking Skull 209 



Fig. 88 — The Spirit Seance in the Light . . . . . <. 211 



PART I 
THE LATEST CARD TRICKS 



Card tricks may be divided into four different classes which 
BiQ first, those that use prepared cards; second, those that 
employ apparatus; third, those that require skill; and fourth, 
those that utilize, or pretend to utilize, memorizing systems, 
or mnemonics, (pronounced ne-mon-ics, a word we get from 
the Greek mnemonikos, which means to remember, or to aid 
the memory). 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



CHAPTER I. 
TRICKS WITH PREPARED CARDS. 

THE PHANTOM CARDS. 

This easy, simple, and wonderfully mystifying trick also 
goes under the name of Phantoms. It can be worked in 
two difiEerent ways, to wit: first, with a handkerchief, and 
second, with a hat. 

The Handkerchief Effect. You hold five spot cards up 
to view, spread out fanwise as shown at A in Fig. i; then 
close them up and throw a handkerchief over them. On 
second thought you remove two cards, as at B, and at the 
same time you say, "And that leaves — (at this instant 
you shake out the handkerchief) "nothing!^' The three 
cards have completely vanished as at C. 

The Hat Effect. Again you hold the cards as at A and 
ask some one to think of three of them, and then drop them 
into a hat. This done, explain that you will remove from 
the hat the two cards that have not been chosen and, suiting 
action to the words, you take them out and replace them in 
the pack you are using. 

The spectators naturally suppose that the three selected 
cards are still in the hat. You tap the crown with your 
fingers, look heavenward and say ''Go!" in a psychological 
tone of voice, then turn the hat upside down and show that 
it is empty. The effect is truly startling. I know, because 
I have done the trick a thousand times or more. 

19 



20 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



Preseatation. Presentation is a nice word that magicians 
use when they wish to convey the meaning of "how a trick 
is presented to an audience.'' Like nearly all good tricks, 
the secret of the Phantom Cards is simple. 

To begin with, there are only two cards and both of them 
have spots on both sides. The first card on one side (called 
the front, or obverse side) shows, say, the Deuce of Spades, as 
at A in Fig. 2, and the other side (caUed the hack or reverse 
side) shows, say, the Six of Clubs as at B, 

The other and second card is the chief one that does the 
trick. The front, or obverse, side shows, say, the Five of 




HAVE VANISHED 



FiG= 1.— The Phantom Cards. 

Spades as at C and the back, or reverse, side is printed with, 
say, part of the Eight of Spades, the Ten of Clubs, the Six of 
Spades and the Nine of Clubs as shown at D ; this, of course, 
gives it the appearance of being four cards. The lower right- 
hand comer is left blank, so that when you hold the Deuce 
of Spades over it, it appears to the spectators exactly like a 
fuU hand of black cards as shown at E. 
Now when you take both cards from the handkerchief 



THE LATEST CARD TRICKS 



21 



OF FIRST CARD 



OF FIRST CARD 



or the hat you show the^ 
backs, or reverse sides of 
them, which no one has 
seen, and as they are not 
among those that the spec- 
tator has thought of he 
knows they are not those 

he has selected. As soon a- front or obverse b-back o_r^reverse 
as you have taken the two 
prepared cards from the 
handkerchief, or the hat, 
replace them in the pack 
so that they will not fall 
into the hands of the curious 
who will speedily discover 
how the trick is done. 

THE CHANGING-SPOT 
CARDS. 

This is one of the best 
card tricks ever invented, 
and it consists of causing 
four Kings to change to 
four Aces and these to 
change to blank cards. 

The Effect. The way it 
appears to the spectators is 
this: first you spread out 
the four cards fanwise and 
show that they are all Kings 





C- THE FRONT OR OBVERSE D" THE BACK OR RE- 
OF SECOND CARD VERSE OF SECOND 
CARD 




E- THE TWO CARDS APPEAR TO 
BE FIVE CARDS 

Fig. 2.— The Phantom Cards. 



22 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



then you pick up the Ace of Spades, place it back of the King 
of Spades, close up the cards, breathe gently on them 
(especially if you have a strong breath) and spread them 
out fanwise, when they will have all changed miraculously 
into aces. 





A- ACE OF SPADES B- KING OF SPADES 





D- I sj PREPARED 
CARD 



C- A BUNK CARD 




£-2*1? PREPARED 
CARD 

Fig. 3.— The Changing-Spot Cards. 



F- 31? PREPARED 
CARD 



You next pick up a blank card from the table, place it 
back of the Ace of Spades, close up the cards again, breathe 
a little harder on them (unless you have been eating onions) 
and spread them out once more into a fan, when all of them 



THE LATEST CARD TRICKS 



will be blank cards. 
Presentation. By 

referring to A, Bj 
and C, Fig. 3, you 
will observe that the 
first three cards are, 
respectively, the Ace 
of Spades, the King 
of Spades and a 
blank card. You 
will also observe that 
D, E and F are 
prepared cards, that 
is, they are printed 
so that the upper 
left-hand corners are 
Kings, that the 
spots in the middle 
represent Aces, and 
the lower right-hand 
corners are blank. 

First, place the 
real King on top of 
the prepared cards 
and spread them out 
just enough to let 
the corners of the 
Kings show, as in 
A Fig. 4, when to 
the spectators it will 




A- THE CARDS ARE ALL KINGS 




B- THE CARDS ARE ^xj/ 
ALL ACES 




C-FINALLY THE CARDS ARE 
ALL BLANK 

Fig. 4.— The Changing-Spot Cards. 



24 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



appear that you have four Kings. Next, pick up the Ace 
of Spades, which you have previously left face-up on the 
table, and explain that you will place it directly back of the 
King of Spades; when you have done this, remove the King 
of Spades and lay it on the table. 

Now right here is where you make the change of Elings to 
the Aces, and to do it you only need to turn the cards around, 
that is, so that the top edges will be at the bottom. Having 
done this, spread the cards out until each Ace spot shows, 
when all four cards will appear to be Aces as at B. 

Lastly, say to the spectators that the result would be just 
the same if you were to use a blank card instead of the ace, 
that is, the cards would all be blanks. To prove it, you pick 
up the blank card from the table and place it back of the 
Ace of Spades, which latter card you lay on the table. Now 
close up the cards just enough to cover the Ace spots, when, 
as far as the eyes of the spectators are concerned, the cards 
have all changed to blanks as at C 



THE ELUSIVE ACE. 

This good Httle trick is also sometimes called Three Card 
Monte, but erroneously, for the latter is a sleight in which 
three perfectly good cards are used and, hence, it requires 
skill, whereas in The Elusive Ace the cards are prepared and 
it takes no dexterity ^to manipulate them. 

The Effect. You begin the trick by laying the Ace, 
Deuce, and Trey on a table with their faces uppermost. 
This done, ask a spectator to point out the Ace, when, much 
to his own surprise and that of the onlookers as well, he will 



THE LATEST CARD TRICKS 



25 



be unable to do so, 
unless, of course, he 
is "in on" the secret 
of the trick. It is 
quite as baffling as 
picking the Ace in 
three card monte or 
pointing out the shell 
the httle pea is under. 
Presentation. Take 
a good glance at 
the cards shown at 
A in Fig. 5, and 
you will see that 
while the Deuce is a 
real card, both the 
Ace and Trey have 
false indices (the in- 
dex being the letter 
or figure at the up- 
per left-hand and 
lower right-hand 
corners of the card, 
and the word indices 
being the plural of 
index). 

Now place the 
cards together with 
the Ace on the bot- 
tom, the Trey in the 



FALSE INDEX 



FALSE INDEX 
L 




A- THE DEUCE IS A REAL CARD WHILE THE ACE AND TREY 
HAVE FALSE INDICES 




B- aRDS SPREAD OUT WITH FALSE 
INDICES COVERED 



THIS IS THE TREY 

.THIS IS THE AC£ 




C- THE WAY THE CARDS 
ARE LAIDONTHETABLfi 

Fig. 5.— The Elusive Ace. 



26 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



middle, and the Deuce on top, and spread them out so that 
only the false indices on the Ace and Trey are covered, as 
shown at B; thus the spectators can easily see that each 
card is just what it purports to be. Close the cards together 
again slowly, and turn the ends with the false indices around 
so that they will be at the top ; then spread them out, when 
the false indices will be seen, as at C, and lay the cards in 
this position on the table. 

Your next move is to ask the spectators to note the posi- 
tion of the Ace and to watch it closely. Close the cards 
together and lay them face downward on the table, being 
sure to have the false indices toward you. Of course the 
one the spectators thought was the Ace will be the Trey, 
and the fact that it is not the card they thought it was will 
confound them. When you pick up the card to show it, be 
siure to have your finger cover the false index. 

THE GHOST CARDS. 

This is a new and wonderfully clever trick. In England 
it is called The Ghost Cards, while I find here in the States 
it goes by the name of Papel Blanco, which is Spanish for 
paper white; reversed, it becomes white paper, though, as a 
matter of fact, the meaning it is intended to convey is that 
of white cards. 

The Effect. The bald effect of the trick is that a number 
of court cards that are placed in a hat change into blank 
cards. To do the trick, you show four court cards to your 
audience and ask the members thereof carefully to note 
them and remember their names. Then you drop them into 
a borrowed hat, and bring forth each one in turn again to 



THE LATEST CARD TRICKS 



27 



show they are all there and that you have not changed them. 
After having satisfied the spectators on this point, you take 
out one of the cards "to make," so you say, "it easier for 
those present to remember the names of the other three 
cards." You ask that some one repeat the names of the 
three cards that remain in the hat, when lo! you produce 
them and show that they are entirely white! 




D- THREE BLANK CARDS 



Presentation. There are five cards used for this trick, 
one of which is a real Queen of Hearts, another, a double- 
face card with four indices on it, and three blank cards. 
Before you start to do the trick, place the real Queen of 
Hearts, which is shown at A in Fig. 6, secretly, in your 
outside pocket. Now place the double-face card, the front, 
or obverse, side of which is shown at and the back, or re- 
verse, side, at C, in front of the blank cards D and you are 
ready to do the trick. 



28 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



The first thing on the list when you are going to perform 
the trick is to borrow a hat and lay it on the table, crown- 
side down. Next pick up the four cards with the double- 
face card on top and keep your thumb over the face and the 
index of the Jack, or Queen, as the case may be, as shown at 
E, so that the spectators can not see that it is made up of 
half a Jack and half a Queen. Then riffle them, and count 
them aloud as each one slip past your thumb, in order to 
let the spectators know that there are four of them. 

This done, drop the cards into the hat one at a time, being 
mindful that the faces of the blank cards are not seen. Now 
take the double-face card out of the hat and show it first as 
the Jack of Clubs, covering the face of the Queen with your 
thumb as I explained above; then throw it back into the hat 
and pretend to take out one of the other cards, but in reality 
pick up the double-face card again, and this time show it as 
the Queen of Hearts, which is on the other side of it. 

Throw it back into the hat, and after looking into the hat 
a moment produce the double-face card and show it as the 
Queen of Clubs; again return it to the hat, look a Kttle more 
into it, and bring it forth for the fourth and last time and 
show it as the Jack of Hearts. Again return it to the hat, 
but lay it so that you can pick it up and show it without 
having to turn it around. 

Now ask a spectator to name the four cards which you 
have just shown, but before he can do so, reach into the hat 
and take out the double-face card and show it as the Queen 
of Hearts, explaining at the same time that this will make 
the trick a little easier to do. Put the double-face card into 
your pocket that contains the real Queen. After the spec- 



THE LATEST CARD TRICKS 



29 



tator recites the names of the remaining three cards in the 
hat, ask him to examine them. He and the rest of the 
audience will have the surprise of their lives for, instead of 
being court cards, they will find them to be perfectly white. 
You can finish the trick by producing the real Queen of 
Hearts from your pocket. 

A SIMPLE WAY TO FORCE A CARD. 

This is not a trick that will stand by itself, but there are 
a hundred and one tricks where it is necessary to force a 
card, that is, to make a spectator take a card which you 
either wish him to take or must know what it is after he has 
taken it. 

Magicians who are skilled in the art, of course, use an 
ordinary pack of cards and are able to force any card they 
want to, and the way they do this will be described in Chapter 
III. But if you are a beginner in the wonderland of magic, 
you can produce precisely the same effect without any pre- 
vious practice or the slightest danger of failure. 

That is, you can if you use a forcing pack of cards. A 
forcing pack consists of having all the cards in the pack alike^ 
or, better you can have half of the pack of, say, the Trey of 
Diamonds, and the other half made up of the Queen of 
Clubs. Or you may go still farther and have the pack divided 
into four parts, each of which is made up of cards that are 
all alike. 

In any event, you should have a real pack at hand, with 
the backs exactly like those of your forcing cards, and 
whatever you do, don^t let the latter lie around carelessly 
and get into the vulgar hands of the uninitiated. 



30 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



THE WIZARD PACK OF CARDS. 

To all appearances, this pack, with which you can do a 
large number of tricks, is an ordinary one consisting of 
fifty-two cards and the Joker. You can hand it to a spec- 
tator and, if he is not "in the know," he cannot see that it is 
in any way different from an ordinary pack, and, further, 
you can use it to play cards with. 

A Few Simple Effects. Among the simple effects you 
can produce with the wizard pack are the following: (i) 
you can let a spectator draw any card and replace it in the 
pack and by running over the cards you can tell him the 
name of it; (2) again, you can let him draw a card and 
replace it in the pack, and you can instantly withdraw it 
and hand it to him; (3) you can let several spectators draw 
cards, replace them, and you can instantly bring them to the 
top of the pack and make them rise from it; (4) you can grip 
thfe pack at both ends and separate 
all the red cards from all the black 
cards, etc. 

Presentation. The wizard pack of 
cards] is known among professional 
magicians as the hiseaute pack, (pro- 
nounced bisote). As the word hiseaute 
in French means beveled, this tells the 
whole secret of it at once, that is, 
the edges of the pack are beveled, 
which makes each card of an inch ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ 
wider at one end than it is at the 
other, and this is so smsdl a difference that it will not be 
noticed. See Fig. 7. 



THE LATEST CARD TRICKS 



31 



In the first effect described above, when the spectator has 
drawn a card, you turn the pack around and on his replacing 
the card in it, the difference in the width will enable you to 
know it when you come to it; in the second effect, after the 
spectator has replaced it in the pack you can grip it by the 
edges and pull it out. 

In the third effect, after all the cards are replaced, grip all 
of them by the edges at the same time, puU them out, and 
place them on the back of the pack. Fourth, and finally, 
by placing all the black cards together, and all the red cards 
together and then reversing the positions of them, so that 
the wide edges of all the black cards are at one end and the 
wide edges of all the red cards are at the other end, by grip- 
ping the ends of the pack in each hand you can pull them 
apart and separate them. 

You can make a pack of wizard cards by having a book- 
binder bevel off the edges of a pack of ordinary cards, but 
inasmuch as you can buy them already prepared at the 
magical supply houses for half a dollar a pack, together with 
instructions for doing ten or a dozen tricks, this is the better 
way to get them 



CHAPTER II. ^ 

CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS. 

There are two classes of apparatus used for card tricks 
and these are first, the kind in which the cards themselves 
are provided with mechanical means to effect a change, and 
second, the kind in which the cards are either real or pre- 
pared and a separate device is used to obtain the desired 
result. 

MECHANICAL CARDS. 

There is quite a variety of mechanical cards, and among 
them is the moving-pip card, the changing card, and the 
restored card, and these I will describe fully so that you can 
make them. These mechanical cards are not, however, 
intended to be used as fuU-fleged tricks, but they are wonder- 
fully effective in combination with other card tricks. 

THE MOVING-PIP CARD. 

The Effect. After a spectator has drawn, say, the Seven 
of Hearts, you produce, in the course of the trick you are 
doing, the Six of Hearts, and holding it up in your hand you 
say, "And here is your card, the Six of Hearts." 

The spectator will correct you, "immediately if not sooner" 
and inform you that his card is the Seven of Hearts." 
Then you ask him if he is sure the card you are holding is 

32 



CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 33 



THREAD MOVES IN 
DIRECTION 0FARB0W5 




8L( 



BLOCK 



A- FRONT OR OBVeRSE 6" SACK OR REVERSE 
SIDE SiPE 



not the card he drew, and at the same time you add the 
other pip, or spot, to it, which will seem., ahnost, to glide 
across the card and make a seven-spot out of a six-spot. 

How to Make the Moving-Pip Card. Take an ordinary 
Six of Hearts and then cut out one of the heart spots, or 
pips, from another card. With a needle, thread the heart 

spot on the finest white silk 
thread you can get and tie 
it to keep it from sHpping. 
Also, with the needle pass 
the ends of the thread 
through the edges of the two 
diagonal heart spots, as 
shown at A in Fig. 8, and 
tie the ends together at the 
back, so that the thread is 
taut and the knot is tight. 
Glue a bit of thick card- 
board, or better, a bit of 
wood, to the thread at the 
back of the card, as at B, 
Now, when you hold the 
card in your hand by its 
edges, your forefinger will 
easily rest on the bit of card- 
board, or wood, as atC7,and 
by pressing down on it the 
thread will move along and 
carry the extra pip to the point where the card becomes a 
seven-spot. You can make a better moving-pip card by 




C-HOW THE CARD IS HELD 
Fig. 8.— The Moving-Pip Card. 



34 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



having the card double and pivoting a Httle tin lever to 
the card, or, better, because it wiU be made exactly right, you 
can buy one of a dealer in magical apparatus. 

THE CHANGING-FLAP CARD. 

The Effect. This is a very effective changing card for the 
reason that it will change from a spot card to a court card, 
or the other way about, as you wish and as many times as 
you wish. You hold the card in your hand, as shown at A 
in Fig. 9, and pass your other hand over the face of the card 
and the change is made. 

How to Make the Changing-Flap Card. This is an easy 
card to make. Take the Nine of Spades and the Queen of 
Diamonds, or any other spot card and court card. Cut these 
two cards precisely through the middle and glue half of the 
spot card to half of the court card with their backs to each 
other. 

Slip a bit of white silk ribbon, or muslin will do, about 3^ 
iuch wide and one inch long, between the abutting edges of 
the half-cards and near the outer edges, as shown at B, and 
then place a flat-iron on them until they are dry. Next, 
glue the other half of the spot card and half of the court 
card , on to another card to support it, as shown at C. 

As soon as you do this, slip the free ends of the ribbons of 
the double-face half-card in the cut between the half-card 
and the support card so that the edge of the former is brought 
up close to the latter. This completes the flap-card, and 
when dry it will be ready to use as shown at D. 

Presentation. To make the change from the spot to the 
court card, hold it in your hand so that the flap is down and 



CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 35 



the Nine of Spades shows as at A, Now make a quick 
rotary movement in the direction of the curved arrow, when 




A- HOW THE FLAP CARO 



IS HELD 




HINGE 



C-THE BASE CARD D-THE FLAP CARD READY 

FOR USE 

Fig. 9.— The Changing-Flap Card. 

the flap will be thrown up and between your fingers and the 
Queen of Hearts will come into view. To change the Queen 



36' 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



back to the spot card, reverse the card in your hand and 
repeat the operation 



THE RESTORED CARD; 

The Effect. In the course of a trick you use, say, the 
Jack of Clubs and tear off a corner of it so that the specta- 



A-nnOW THE COURT e- HOW THE BACKING 



CARD 15 CUT 



CARD IS CUT 





RUBBER 
STRAND 






CORNER OF 
THE SIX OF 
HEARTS 



MUSLIN STRIP 
GLUED BETWEEN 
THE CORNERS 
OF THE CARDS 
C- HOW THE CORNERS OF 
THE CARDS ARE 
GLUED TOGETHER 



RUBBER STRAND PASSING 
^OVER TO FRONT OF CARD 



BACK OF THE CORNER 
OF THE CARD 



E- SHOWING LEVER 
ON BACK OF CARD 



OFRONT OF THE 
RESTORED CARD 
SHOWING RUBBER STRAND 



Fig. 10— The Restored Card. 



tors will be able to identify it at all times. When you get to 
the end of the trick, substitute the mechanical torn card for 
it. Hold the latter up in your hand and throw the torn-off 



CAJRD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 37 



corner of the original card at it with your other hand, when 
the card will be made whole again. 

How to Make the Restored Card. Cut the corner out of 
the Jack of Clubs, or any other court card, as shown at A 
in Fig. lo, and cut the corner out of any other card, say, 
the Six of Hearts, exactly to match it, but make it H inch 
wider and longer, as shown at B and C; this latter card is to 
serve only as a back. 

Glue the two cards together and also their respective 
corners and hinge them together with a bit of muslin, see C, 
so that the corner will fold over on the back. When the 
cards are perfectly dry, run a strand of rubber through the 
comer of the card from the back, bring it over to the front 
of the card and through the center of it, as shown at and 
to the back again. Then tie the ends of the strand of 
rubber together or fasten them otherwise to the back, as 
atE. 

The tension of the rubber must be just enough so that 
when the comer of the card is released from the back it will 
bring it to an upright position. To hold the comer out of 
sight until you are ready to "restore" it, make a little lever 
of cardboard, or tin, and pivot it to the back as is also shown, 
at E. When the comer is folded back on the card, push the 
end of the lever over it and it will make it stay there until 
you are ready to release it. 

Presentation. When you want to restore a card at the 
end of a trick, hold the mechanical card in your left hand 
with your finger on the end of the lever ready to trip the 
comer. Take the real torn corner in your fingers and make 
a pass with it, pretending to throw it at the card. At the 



38 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



same instant trip the lever, when the spectators see the 
phenomenon of the torn card made whole, and you can then 
without exciting suspicion lay on the table under cover of 
your wand the real torn card that you have palmed 

CARD APPARATUS. 

We are now getting into the realm of real tricks, by which 
I mean those that can be performed before private and public 
audiences. It is indeed surprising what really startling 
effects can be produced with the simplest kind of apparatus, 
which, for the most part, you can make yourself. 

THE CHANGING-CARD BOX. 

This unpretentious Httle device can be made to produce 
three effects, the first of which is to change one card into 
another card, the second, to make a card appear, and the 
thirdj to make a card disappear. For the first effect a 
simple box is used, while for the last two effects the box is 
provided with a jiap. 

The First Effect. You hand a httle box, about half an 
inch deep and just wide and long enough to permit a card to 
lie in it easily, to a spectator for examination. He will 
find it to be exactly what you said it was, to wit, without 
preparation. 

Next you show a card, say, the Trey of Diamonds and 
this you lay in the box, which you close; this done, you can 
either lay the box on the table, hold it yourself, or ask some 
one to hold it. On opening the box, the Trey of Diamonds 
will be found to have changed into the Nine of Clubs, or 
any other card that you have previously settled upon. 



CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 39 



How to make the Box. Make the box of 3^-iiich thick 
wood, about H an inch deep, 2^ inches wide, and 2>H 
inches long, inside measurement. The top and the bottom 
of the box are made exactly alike as shown at A in Fig. 11. 
Hinge them together as shown at B. You can use cigar-box 




Fig. 11 —The Changing-Card Box. 



wood to make it of, but, of course, for a real performance it 
would look better if it were made of mahogany, cherry, or 
some other kind of fine cabinet wood, and polished. 

Presentation. The card you use for the changing card 
effect is a double-faced one, made of two cards glued together 
back to back. Now when you show the Trey of Diamonds 
you lay it in the box face up and without the spectators 
seeing the back or reverse side of it, which is the Nine of 
Clubs. 



40 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



After you have closed the top of the box, you turn it over^ 
and then when you open it again the Nine of Clubs will be 
the side of the card that is uppermost. As both halves of 
the box are ahke, that part of it which is up becomes the 
top. In other words, when you turn the box over the card 
turns over with it. 

The Second and Third Effects. (A) In this case you use 
an unprepared card, in fact any card a spectator may choose 
from the pack, by which I mean that you do not force it, 
and this you lay in the box. On opening it the spectators 
will discover that the card has disappeared. (B) Now 
close the box and open it once more, when the card will have 
reappeared. 

The Use of the Flap. The box is made exactly like the 
one I have described above but it is fitted with a flap. This 
is merely a very' thin piece of wood, anywhere from He to 
inch thick at the most, of the same kind that the box is made 
of, and the width and length of which is such that it will just 
fit into the box without binding. It' is shown at C in Fig. ii. 

Presentation. Let us suppose now that the box is open 
and the flap is resting on the bottom of it. It stands to 
reason that it cannot be seen, and its presence is never sus- 
pected, because it is too thin. Now lay in the box, the card 
you want to disappear, close the top, and turn it over; 
naturally the card will fall to the other side which is now the 
bottom, and the flap will fall on top of the card, thus con- 
ceaHng it and, hence, it follows that on opening the box the 
card, to all intents, has vanished. 

To make the card reappear, all you have to do is to turn 
the box over, when the flap, with the card on top of it, will 



CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 



41 



fall to the lower side, or bottom, and the latter is uppermost. 
Made a little larger and with some modifications the same 
kind of a box can be used for the vanishment and appearance 
of handkerchiefs and other Hke objects. 

THE FRAME OF ALADDIN. 

This useful piece of apparatus, which is technically known 
to magicians as the sand frame, will make a card slowly 
appear or disappear before the very eyes of the audience. It 
can be used alone as a trick, but it is simply great when 




A- THE SAND FRAME B- CROSS-SECTION C'THE APPEARING CARD 
Fig. I^.— The Sand Frame. 

used in combination with the card box which I have just 
described. It is shown at A in Fig. 12. 

The Effects. {A) You show what looks to be an ordinary 
photograph frame, then set it on your table, when a selected 
card will gradually appear behind the glass in it and you 
can take it out and pass it for examination. Or {B) you can 
place a selected card in the frame, when it will slowly but 
surely disappear. 

How the Sand Frame is Made. Instead of a single sheet 
of glass in front, the frame has two pieces of glass and these 
are separated about of an inch. The space thus formed 



42 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



is filled with fine silver sand, which is exactly the same 
color as the back of the frame. At one end, which is really 
the bottom of the frame, there is a cavity or little well and 
when it is set on this end the sand runs into it. 

It is obvious that when the frame is in this position and 
the sand is in the well a card placed between the second 
sheet of glass and the real back will be readily seen, and it 
must also be clear that when the frame is reversed the sand 
will run into the space between the sheets of glass and fill it 
thus obscuring the card. In this way the card is made 
slowly to appear and disappear. A cross-section view of 
the frame is shown at B. 

Presentation. Place, say, the Deuce of Spades in the card 
frame and turn it over so that the sand will cover the face 
of the card, when the frame will appear to be empty. Now 
force a Deuce of Spades on a spectator, place it in your 
card box and explain that what you intend to do is to pass 
the card that is reposing in the box through the intervening 
space and into the card frame. 

In making this talk, pick up the frame and turn it over, 
when the sand will begin to run out and into the well. 
When the card is fully exposed to view, pick up the box, 
show that it is empty, and then remove the card from the 
frame and pass it for examination. 

The effect of using the card box and the sand frame to- 
gether, especially if you give a little talk about things not 
seeming to be what they are and the Einstein theory of 
relativity* in general is very impressive. 

*A simple description of relativity will be found in the Scientific American for 
Feb. 5, 192 1. 



CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 43 



LA HOULETTE, OR THE RISING CARDS. 

Rising-card tricks, that is making selected cards rise out 
of a pack, are as old as the art of magic itself, but if you 
can work a method that baffles the spectator's understand- 
ing, then the trick is just as refreshing and equally as mysti- 
fying as though it were invented yesterday. Here are 
three good rising-card methods, or as the French call it, la 
houlette. 

The Rising-Card Effect. Whatever method is used for 
the rising card trick, the effect is fundamentally the same 
in all cases, to wit, one or more cards are selected by the 
spectators and then returned to the pack. This done, the 
pack is held in the hand, placed in a glass, or in a skeleton 
frame, and as the selected cards are called for, they rise up 
and out of the pack. 

First Method. No apparatus is requred for this method. 
After having forced one or more cards on the spectators 
have them returned to the pack and make the pass (the way 
to do this is described in the next chapter) thus bringing the 
selected card to the back of the pack. 

Now hold the pack near the top between your thumb and 
third finger and little finger, as shown at A in Fig. 13, with 
the face of the cards toward the spectators ; this leaves your 
forefinger and middle finger free at the back of the pack, as 
shown at B, and by giving them a walking motion and 
pressing each one alternately against the card, at the same 
time pushing up on the card, it will rise smoothly and in a 
most mystifying manner, until it emerges from the pack 
when it will fall on the floor. 



44 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



Second Method. This method is more effective than the 
first because it apparently isolates the pack from your 
hand. The trick requires, however, a special glass tumbler. 
A strip of the glass is cut out between two of the parallel 
lines H inch wide and 3 inches long, as shown at A in Fig. 14. 




A B 

Fig. 13.— The Rising Cards. (First Method.) 

After you have forced the card or cards, have them re- 
placed in the pack, then bring them to the back as before 
by making the pass, and place the pack in the tumbler. 
Grasp the tumbler as shown at J5, when your forefinger will 
come directly in the slit cut in the glass and it is easy then 
to push each card up in turn. 

Third Method. Now we are getting into something that 
looks like real stage magic. You can work this method 



CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 45 



yourself, but it is better to have an assistant. Whichever 
way you work it, the preparation and presentation are the 
same. 

First, the cards the spectators select are forced and you 
have to switch the pack, that is substitute it for a pack that 
is prepared. The dupHcate cards that rise out of the pack, 




Fig. 14— The Rising Cards. (Second Method. 



are not, however, prepared. Go about preparing the pack 
in this way: take two pieces of very fine, yet strong black 
silk thread about 20 inches long and fasten them to the 
end of a court card (i) at two places near the bottom as 
shown at A in Fig. 15. 

This done, place a dozen cards (2) on it so that the court 
card will be in front of them and then bring the threads over 
the top of them. Next, place a card (3) that is like one of 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



THIS CARP 




THREAD 

FASTENED HERE 




CARD TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 47 



those you are going to force, over the threads and bring the 
latter to the top again and over another dozen cards (4) 
when the threads will run out at the back. Now snap a 
rubber band around the pack to hold the threads in place. 

In this trick the pack of cards is placed in a glass goblet 
and the latter is set on a table. The table must have a 
cloth on it that is tacked or otherwise fixed to it. Right 
back of the spot where the goblet is to set, stick a pin through 
the table-cloth and run the free end of the thread under it, 
as shown at B. 

Lead the thread back to a screen, or a curtain, and through 
it where your assistant, concealed of course, holds it. When 
you are ready for the card to rise he will pull the thread 
gently but firmly, which will in turn draw the selected card 
up and out of the pack. 

While I have explained how a single card is made to rise, 
it gives the trick more class to use three cards. The other 
two cards are placed over the threads exactly like the first 
one, but the cards must not be placed together in the pack. 
It is better to make and use a pack with only one rising 
card in it at first, when you will see precisely how the others 
are arranged in the pack and worked. 

Presentation. Force one or more cards like the one or 
more you have in your prepared pack and have them replaced 
in the ordinary pack. Take the latter to your table and 
there switch it for the prepared pack. This you can do 
easily by having the prepared pack lying on the table under 
cover of a silk handkerchief. 

Lay on the table the pack with the duplicates of the selected 
cards in it, and transfer the handkerchief to and over the 



48 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



other pack. Next, show the tumbler to be without prepara- 
tion of any kind and set it down just in front of the pin. 
Place the prepared pack in the glass, and when you are 
ready for the card, or cards, to rise, give your assistant his 
cue by a word, when he will draw the thread and the card or 
cards will come up and out in a most mysterious manner. 



CHAPTER III. 



MENTAL CARD MAGIC 

Mental card magic includes those card tricks that depend 
on firsts little schemes and artifices, on second, mnemonics, or 
memorizing systems, on third, helpful apparatus, and on 
fourth, arithmetical processes. The effects produced by any 
and all of these devices seem to the spectators to be the 
result of some preternatural working of your mind and, 
hence, the experiments are always very fascinating. 

Card Schemes and Artifices. 

a second-sight card-reading test 
This is a trick that can be done by Httle boys, but it is 
none the less mystifying for that, and it is a fine impromptu 
trick for the parlor. 

The Effect. Hand a spectator an ordinary pack of cards 
with the request that he shuffle them and then ask him to 
make four equal piles of them. Now turn yom* back and 
further request that some one remove a card from the top 
of any one of the piles, show it to those present, and then 
put it back either on the same pile or any one of the others. 
This done, you about-face and lay each pile on top of the 
one next to it; having the cards once more in a pack, you 
come upon and tell the sepectator what the card is that he 
selected. 

Presentation. This second-sight feat is done in this 
exceedingly simple fashion. After the spectator has selected 

49 



50 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



the card, shown it to the others in the audience, and replaced 
it on top of one of the piles, you turn around and ask him 
to point out the pile on which his card rests. 

When you have learned this, pick up the pile next to it, 
look at the card on the bottom of it, which you can do with- 
out exciting the least suspicion, and lay the pile on top of 
the one on which the selected card rests. From this moment 
on, aU is easy for you and deep mystery for the audience, 
for since you are aware what the card is that is next to the 
chosen card, when you come to the latter you will, of course, 
know it. 

Suppose by way of illustration that the Eight of Diamonds 
has been chosen by the spectator and that he has laid it on 
top of the second pile. When you pick up the first pile you 
will see that the bottom card is, let us say, the Queen of 
Hearts. Now when you look over the pack and come to 
the Queen of Hearts you will know that the next card is the 
selected one which will prove to be the Eight of Diamonds. 

In doing this trick, take all the time that is necessary, for 
the spectators all know that mental magic requires a tre- 
mendous upheaval of grey matter on your part and they do 
not expect miracles to be performed in a hurry. It is, 
therefore, much more impressive to look the cards through 
twice, the first time so that you yourself may learn what 
the selected card is, and then on reaching it the second time 
you can pick it out. 

A THOUGHT-READING CARD TEST. 

The Effect. Pass" a pack of cards out into the audience 
with the request that it be well shuffled and that some 



MENTAL CARD MAGIC 



51 



spectator kindly select a card. This done, you take the 
pack and ask that the selected card be replaced in it, and 
this you push down, and again ask that the pack be shuffled. 

Next, you spread the cards out fanwise and hold them in 
this position so that the person who selected the card can 
see it, and then tell him to look at it and concentrate his 
best thought on it. Having done so, you immediately call 
out the selected card. Since the cards are not prepared in 
any way, and are shuffled by the spectators before and after 
the card is selected, the effect is little short of miraculous. 

Presentation. This really amazing effect is produced by 
so simple a means as slightly bending over the corner of the 
index of the card after the spectator has placed it in the 
pack, which latter you are holding, and as you are pushing 
the card down into it. You can tell, now, the instant you 
see the card what it is, and indeed you can even go so far as 
to let the cards be shuffled again. 

In doing any of these mental card feats, don't forget that 
it is the deep, invisible workings of your brain that impress 
your audience quite as much as the final climatic effect 
which is produced. This being the case, always work 
deliberately and never in your own mind consider that 
what you are doing is a mere ruse. In other words, act your 
part, and in acting it be a good actor. 

A MIND-READING CARD TEST 

The first great mind readers were Stuart Cumberland and 
Washington Irving Bishop, and the wonders that they per- 
formed led many brainy folk to believe that there is such 
a thing as one person reading the mind of another. AU of 



52 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



their feats were, however, based on either muscle-reading, or 
on Httle artifices such as that described in the presentation 
of the following feat. 

The Effect. You ask a spectator to assist you, and when 
he comes forward you hand him an ordinary pack of cards 
with the request that he shuffle them; on receiving them 
again you hold them so that the faces are toward the spec- 
tator, who stands, say, three feet in front of and facing you, 
and with the backs toward yourself. 

You now ask the spectator to think of a card as you run 
them one at a time from one hand to the other so that he 
can plainly see each one in turn. When he has mentally 
chosen the card, you conclude the feat in any one of a mmiber 
of ways, such as placing your finger on top of the pack, or 
your finger on his forehead, or holding the pack on his fore- 
head or your own and then impressively calling out the 
chosen card. 

Presentation. Like all other mysteries of life and matter, 
the secret of this feat is simpHcity itself when you have 
discovered it. As you pass the cards from one hand to the 
other, you keep count of them but you look directly at the 
eyes of your assistant while you are doing it. Now it is 
well known in psychology that the moment a person chooses 
an object mentally his eyes will instantly show a further 
lack of interest, and so indicate it. 

This being true, you can easily see by his eyes which card 
he has chosen, and since you have counted the cards you 
know, naturally, just how many cards it is from the first 
one. The next thing to do is to close up the cards and make 
the pasSy as described in the next chapter, which will bring 



MENTAL CARD MAGIC 



53 



the card to the top of the pack where it is easy to take a 
look at the index. As soon as you have done so, give the 
pack to your assistant and have him shuffle them again, 
when you tell him the name of the card. 

THE MNEMONIC PACK OF CARDS. 

While performing feats of magic with this pack is by no 
means as easy as those I have already explained in this 
chapter, still the astounding effects you that can produce with 
it will amply repay you for the time you spend in mastering it. 

The Effects. There are quite a number of effects that 
you can obtain with this pack of cards; among these are 
first, that you can hold them back of you and name all the 
cards in sequence as you come to them until you have gone 
through the pack. 

Second, you can let the spectators cut the pack as many 
times as they wish, and as soon as you see the top card you 
can read off all the others; third, you can place the pack in a 
spectator's pocket and let him remove the cards one at a 
time, when you will tell what each card is in advance, and 
fourth, you can produce any card called for while the pack 
is in your own or a spectator's pocket. 

Arrange ment. Just bear in mind that the word mnemonics 
means an aid to the memory and it follows that the mnemonic 
pack of cards, which is an ordinary pack of cards arranged, 
or rather pre-arranged, in accordance with a very simple 
system of mnemonics, enables you to name every card in the 
pack in sequence, (even though the spectators cut them any 
number of times) without seeing the faces of them, and 
without having to rack your brain to do it. 



54 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



Firsty take the full pack of fifty-two cards and build up 
four piles, each of which has thirteen cards in it in accord- 
ance with the following table. The diagram, Fig, i6, also 
shows the arrangement of the cards. 

TABLE SHOWING THE ARRANGEMENT OF CARDS. 



First Pile 


Second Pile 


8 of Spades 


8 of Hearts 


jvxix^ ux xicdx La 


J\.XXX^ UX ^XlXUo 


3 of Clubs 


3 of Diamonds 


10 of Diamonds 


10 of Spades 


2 of Spades 


2 of Hearts 


7 of Hearts 


7 of Clubs 


9 of Clubs 


9 of Diamonds 


5 of Diamonds 


5 of Spades 


Queen of Spades 


Queen of Hearts 


4 of Hearts 


4 of Clubs 


Ace of Clubs 


Ace of Diamonds 


6 of Diamonds 


6 of Spades 


Jack of Spades 


Jack of Hearts 


Third Pile 


Fourth Pile 


8 of Clubs 


8 of Diamonds 


King of Diamonds 


K-ing of Spades 


3 of Spades 


3 of Hearts 


10 of Hearts 


10 of Clubs 


2 of Clubs 


2 of Diamonds 


7 of Diamonds 


7 of Spades 


9 of Spades 


9 of Hearts 


5 of Hearts 


5 of Clubs 


Queen of Clubs 


Queen of Diamonds 


4 of Diamonds 


4 of Spades 


Ace of Spades 


Ace of Hearts 


6 of Hearts 


6 of Clubs 


Jack of Clubs 


Jack of Diamonds 



MENTAL CARD MAGIC 



♦ ♦ ♦ 
♦ ♦ 

♦ ♦ ♦ 




•I' 4 !•* 

1*1*1 

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Memorizing Pack. 



56 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



Secondy lay the third pile on the fourth, the second pile on 
the third, and the first pile on the second. The cards can 
now be cut (not shuffled) any number of times without 
disarranging the order of them in any way. 

Memory Aid to the Suits. From the above table you will 
observe that the suits of the cards run Spades, Hearts, Clubs, 
and Diamonds, and while it is not difficult to remember this 
order, it is much easier to do so by employing some artificial 
aid to your memory, and besides there is no possibility 
then of forgetting. 

To remember the order of the suits you use two mnemonic 
words, which are SHow and CoDe; the capital letters 
stand for each one of the four suits in the order in which 
the cards are arranged, namely. Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and 
Diamonds. Now you can always remember the words 
SHow CoDe, and, consequently, you can not forget the 
order of the suits. 

Memory Aid to the Values. To remember the order in 
which the value of the cards run, you use a simple mnemonic 
sentence of thirteen parts, each of which is nearly enough 
like the card it stands for, for you know it instantly, without 
calling on your memory and without any guess work. The 
sentence is Eight Kings threaten to save ninety- five Queens 
for one sick Knave; which means 

8 Kings 3 10 2 7 
Eight KiQgs threat- en to save 

9 5 Queen 4 Ace 6 Jack 
Ninety- five Queens for one sick Knave. 

Here, then you have the key to the whole memorizing 
system. 



MENTAL CARD MAGIC 



57 



Presentation. You lay the pack of cards on the table and 
request a spectator to cut them. When he has done so, 
look at the top card, (secretly if possible, openly if you wish 
to) then hold the pack back of you, sKp off one card at a 
time, and before bringing it forward you name the suit and 
value. 

Suppose, for instance, the top card, which you have seen, 
is the King of Clubs; your mnemonic words will tell you that 
the suit of the next card is diamonds and your mnemonic 
sentence will tell you that the value of it is three, or the Three 
of Diamonds. A little practice will enable you to rattle off 
the cards, one after the other, at a great rate. 

Another way is to lay the pack on the table and let the 
spectator draw off the cards, which, as he does so, you will 
name before he sh(3ws the faces of them. Still another 
effect is to place the pack in your own pocket, or in that of a 
spectator, and then name the cards as you draw them out. 
There are any number of variations of the trick, as you will 
find after you have worked it a few times. 

Marion's mind-reading card trick. 

The Effect. The bald effect of this very excellent parlor 
trick is that you are either bHndfolded or turn your back to 
the spectator who is to assist you. You request him to lay 
down two rows of any number of cards up to ten, that he 
wishes to, next take away any number of cards from the 
rows he wishes to, then add any number of cards to the 
rows he wishes to, and repeat the process as often as he 
likes, when you will tell him the number of cards that remain 
in both rows. 



58 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



Presentation. At no time do you see the cards on the 
table, but you learn the number of cards that remain by a 
simple arithmetical calculation which I will explain presently. 
First, you request the spectator to lay down two rows of 
cards, each row to have any number of cards in it up to ten, 
but both rows must have the same number of cards in it. 

Second, you request him to take away any number of 
cards from the rows and to tell you how many he took away 
from each row; third, you request him to add any number of 
cards to the rows and to tell you how many cards he added 
to each row. He can repeat the process of taking from and 
adding to the number of cards in each row as many times 
as he likes, but he must tell you each time he does so the 
number of cards he has added to or taken away from the row. 

How the Calculation is Made. Now let us suppose that 
the spectator lays down three cards in each row thus: 



That he takes one card from the bottom row thus: 



Next he adds one card to the top row thus: 



MENTAL CARD MAGIC 59 

Then you tell him to take all of the cards from the bottom 
row thus: 

"1 I Top Row 



Bottom Row 

And to take as many cards from the top row as he took 
from the bottom row thus: 

n TT Top Row 



Bottom Row 

When of course two cards will remain in the top row as 
above. 

Written down in figures the process he goes through with 
is this: 

3 2 2 O O 

and he has two cards left in the top row. 

Although you do not know how many cards he has started 
with, you assume in your mind that there are five cards in 
each row, and you add to and subtract from the five cards 
in each row the number of cards he adds to or takes away 
from the rows as he calls them out. On this arbitrary basis, 
then, you see in your mind's eye two rows of five cards each, 
thus : 

Top Row 



Bottom Row 



60 THE BOY MAGICIAN 

When he states he has taken one card from the bottom 
row you subtract it, when you have a mental picture of 
them thus: 

I T Top Row 



Bottom Row 

When he says he has added one card to the top row you 
see your imaginary cards like this: 

Top Row 



Bottom Row 

Now tell him to take away all of the cards from the 
bottom row thus 

Top Row 

Bottom Row 

And then to take as many cards from the top row as he 
took from the bottom row thus: 

Top Row 

Bottom Row 

When of course you will know that two cards remain in 
the top row. 

Written down in figures the process that you go through 
with is , ^ 

54400 

And you tell him that there are two cards left in the top 
row. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CARD SLEIGHTS OF SKILL. 

The fundamental basis of professional conjuring is skilled 
hand work with cards, coins, balls, handkerchiefs, and the 
like, and if you aspire to appear before audiences who have 
paid their good money to see you expound the mystic art, 
you must begin by learning how to palm, make passes, false 
shuffles and ruffles. 

THE WAY TO FORCE A CARD. 

The very first thing you should learn in the way of card 
sleights is how to force a card, that is, make a spectator choose 
from the pack a card which you have previously decided you 
want him to take. In this case the pack of cards is an 
ordinary one, and while it requires very small skill to force 
a card, it gives you a tool of trade which enables you to 
perform any number of card tricks. 

To force a card, say the Ace of Diamonds, you spread the 
cards out fanwise toward the spectator whom you have 
asked to choose one. In order to make him take the card 
you want him to, you previously place the Ace of Diamonds 
in the pack so that it will be, say, the twelfth card from the 
top, as shown at A in Fig. 17, as this will enable you to keep 
track of it. 

As you spread the cards out fanwise to make it easier for 
the spectator to choose one, you run them along quickly 

61 



I 



62 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



until you have reached the twelfth card. Just as he is 
going to pick a card, you bring the twelfth one, which is, as 
I have said, the Ace of Diamonds nearest to his fingers, as 
shown at B, and he will take it in practically every instance. 




Fig. 17.— How to Force a Card. 

Once in a while, though, a stubborn spectator, or one who 
knows a little of magic, will not take the card you want him 
to. The instant you see this untoward disposition cropping 
out on his part, turn quickly to the next nearest spectator 
and remarking that as the other gentleman is a Httle slow will 



CARD SLEIGHT OF SKILL 



63 



he be good enough to hurry up a bit. In this way you dis- 
pose of the uncongenial spirit without getting into a wrangle 
and before the other spectators suspect that an3rthing is up. 

THE WAY TO MAKE THE PASS. 

Next to being able to force a card, to make the pass, or as 
the French call it, sauter la coupe, is the most useful sleight 
in the dextrous manipulation of cards. In fact the two 
sleights go hand in hand in many tricks. 

The term to make the pass means that you shift the posi- 
tion of a card that has just been placed in the pack by a 
spectator, and bring it to the top or the bottom, as you 
want it, and where you can look at it or get hold of it with- 
out the sHghtest difhculty. 

The way to make it is like this : \Vhen the spectator has 
chosen his card, which you may or may not have forced 
upon him, and he has reinserted it in the pack, before you 
press it in flush with the others of the pack, hold the latter 
in your left hand as shown at A in Fig. 18. 

Now with the thumb and fingers of your right hand grip 
the opposite ends of all the cards that are above the one he 
has replaced in the pack, and lift them up just enough to get 
your ring finger on the top of the chosen card, as at B. 
Next, press in the chosen card even with the rest of the pack, 
and under cover of your right hand you Hft up the cards on 
top of the chosen card, as at C. 

Your next move is to lift the lower part of the pack, which 
has the chosen card, on top of it, with your right hand, as at 
D, and, then bring the upper cards back and under the 
lower cards, finally, let down on the others, the cards which 



64 THE BOY MAGICIAN 




c 



Fig. 18 —How to Make the Pass. 

were underneath but now are uppermost when the positions 
of the two parts of the pack will be reversed and the chosen 
card will be on top.* 
While a detailed description of a sleight always seems 

♦This is the pass you want to use for the rising-card trick which I explained in 
Chapter III. 



CARD SLEIGHT OF SKILL 



65 



complicated, you have only to take a pack of cards in your 
hand and foUow the instructions slowly and with care,when 
you will find that it is, after all, comparatively easy. To do 
the pass, or any other sleight without detection, however, 
requires practice, and there is only one way to get it down 
fine, and that is to do it over and over again just as though 
you were learning to play the sHde trombone. 

THE WAY TO PALM A CARD. 

After you have learned how to force a card and know 
how to make the pass to bring it to the top of the pack you 
should practise palming it, that is holding in the palm of your 
hand without the spectators being able to see it. You can 




Fig. 19.— How to Palm a Card. 



then "disappear" it altogether by laying it down on your 
table, or make it reappear wherever you want to. 

To Palm a Single Card. It is the better way to learn to 
palm a single card first, though several cards, or a whole 
pack for that matter, can be palmed in the same way. To 
palm a card, assuming of course that it is the one on top of 



66 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



the pack, slip the Kttle finger on your left hand under the 
card as shown at A in Fig. 19. 

Now lay your right hand over it, and all you have to do 
is to Hft the card up with your Httle finger of yoiu: other 
hand into the palm of your right hand, as shown at B, and 
the sleight is done. If you are going immediately to make 
use of the card you can remove your right hand with the 
card in it, but if there is to be any considerable time, by 
which I mean from five to ten seconds, that you have to 
keep it palmed, then it is the safer way to avoid the chance 
of detection by holding the rest of the pack in your hand, as 
shown at C, 

To Palm a Dozen Cards. A favorite sleight with card 
manipulators, and it is a very showy one, is to produce a 
handful of cards, spread out fanwise from the elbow of your 
coat-sleeve, side of your trouser's leg, back of your neck, 
under the sole of your shoe, from the inside pocket of a 
spectator, or from his nose or ear. 

All these sleights are done in precisely the same way, that 
is, by palming off eight or ten cards from the pack in the 
manner described above for a single card, then immediately 
reach back of or under some part of your own or a specta- 
tor's anatomy, then spread the cards out fanwise, next, 
bring them to the tips of your fingers while still under cover, 
so far as this is possible, and produce them. 

To heighten the effect, which is quite spectacular in itself, 
the instant before you produce them, run the corners of the 
pack of cards, which you are holding in your left hand, 
between your thumb and forefinger so that they will make a 
distinct crackling noise. The sharp successive sounds 



CARD SLEIGHT OF SKILL 



67 



will carry out to an amazing extent the illusion that 
the cards are passing invisibly from the pack, one at a time, 
to the point from which a moment after you produce the 
cards. 

The Back and Front Palm. Whether or not Thurston, 
on whose shoulders fell the mantle of the great Kellar, 
invented the back and front card palm, I do not know, but 
it is the basic sleight of the former's wonderful act of card 
manipulation. 

The sleight involved is quite simple with a single card, 
but it becomes a matter of considerable complexity when a 
dozen or more cards are used. The effect with a single card 
is this : You show a card and it disappears from the tips of 
your fingers, you produce it, disappear it again, show the 
back of your hand, and then the front of it alternately as 
many times as you like, and finally you reproduce the card. 

Another effect is to show, say, the Ace of Diamonds, and 
disappear it with your left hand, when it instantly reappears 
in your right. If you have got the sleight down fine, each 
time you disappear the card you can show both the fronts 
and the backs of each hand. 

The Back Palm. The first thing to do is to learn to make 
the back palm with a single card. Hold the card near one 
end by its edges between your forefinger and Httle finger, 
with your thumb in the middle, as shown at A in Fig. 20, 
and rest the tips of your middle and third fingers on the 
back of the card, as shown at B, 

Now take away your thumb and at the same time press 
on the end of the back of the card with your middle and 
third fingers, which will swing the card around toward the 



68 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



back of your hand, as shown at C; then grip one of the cor- 
ners of the card between your forefinger and middle finger, 
and the other corner between your third finger and your 
Httle finger. 

Straighten out your middle and third fingers so that your 
palm will be open and they will push the card to the back of 




Fig. 20/— How to Back Palm a Card. 

your hand, as shown at Z>, when you can show the palm of 
yoiu: hand wide open, the card having, as far as human 
eyesight is concerned, completely disappeared. To make 
the card reappear, bring it to your finger tips again, which 
you can do without any practice. Thus you can disappear 
and reappear the card as many times as you like. 

After you have learned to do the sleight with one hand, 
practise it with th^ Qther one, and when you are quite 



CARD SLEIGHT OF SKILL 



69 



proficient take an Ace of Diamonds in each hand, then 
back pahn one card with your left hand and show the other 
and like card in your right hand. Now make the former 
appear and the latter disappear, and you will have the 
highly illusive effect of the card changing from one hand to 
the other. 

The Front Palm. In the above effects you can disappear 
a card, which means that you show the palm of you hand, 
but to prove that the card has really gone you must show the 
back of your hand as well as the front. This means that 
you must front palm the card, but the palming in this case 
is quite different from the one I have previously described. 

To do this, bring the card from the back of your hand to 
the position shown at A in Fig. 21, by simply doubUng up 
your fingers, then holding the card in place with your thumb, 
as shown at J5, and straighten out your fingers, when the 
card will be on the front, or palm side of your hand, as at C. 
At the same instant you make this move, turn your hand so 
that the back of it is toward the spectators, which effectually 
covers the shifting of the card. 

With a very Httle practice you can get the twist of it so 
that you can switch the card from the back to the front of 
your hand almost with a single movement, and the other 
way about, that is from the front to the back of your hand. 
This is called the continuous front and back palm. 

THE WAY TO DO CARD RUFFLES. 

By card ruffles are meant those digital manipulations that 
please and mystify by virtue of their skill and beauty. 
These include such effects as springing, or elongating the 



70 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



pack a foot or two, running the cards up your sleeve and 
turning them over, pouring them in a perfect stream from 
one hand to the other, and more dexterities like these. 

To do these ruffles you must get a pack of cards that go 
by the name of Steamboats — the cheapest kind that is 
made. These cards have a rough finish, as against the 
higher-grade glazed cards, and hence they offer just enough 
frictional resistance so that they will not sHde easily about, 




Fig. 21.— How to Front Palm 

a Card. Fig. 22 —Elongating the Pack. 



required, and these are first, patience, and second, practice, 
and to become anything like a skilful magician you must 
have a fair measure of the one and do without stint the other. 



CARD SLEIGHT OF SKILL 



71 



Springing, or Elongating the Pack. By this term the 
ruffle is meant that you spring the cards from one hand to 
the other, letting each one go separately and yet so closely 
and evenly that the effect is almost like drawing out an 
accordion and closing it up with a snap. 

To do this ruffle, take a full pack of cards and hold it in 
your hand between the ends of your fingers and your thimibs 
and squeeze the cards together until they bow as shown in 
Fig. 2 2 . Now hold your other hand under them, and squeeze 
the pack just hard enough, and then relax the pressure just 



gently enough to make the cards slip out one at a time in 
quick succession and spring into your other hand. 

When you have learned to spring the cards from your hand 
with precision, you can then begin to practise elongating 
them, and you wiU be surprised to see how far you can make 
them spread out. The better way to get the distance as 
^reat as possible is to practise elongating them four or five 
nches, and then increase it an inch or two at a time until 
^ou can spring them a foot or eighteen inches. This ruffle 
s very showy, and you can vary it in a number of ways. 

Running the Cards Up Your Arm. To run the cards up 
^our arm, spring them in exactly the same way as explained 




B 



Fig. 23. — ^Arm Manipulation. 



72 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



above, but at the same time move your right hand, which 
holds the cards, along your left arm from the palm of your 
hand to your elbow. When you are able to run the cards up 
your arm neatly, insert the tip of your forefinger between 
the edge of the last card and your arm as shown in Fig. 23, 
and Hft it up when you will find that it acts like a lever and it 

will push all of the other cards 
over in turn. Moreover, you can 
turn them all back again by lift- 
ing up and pushing back the first 
card. The effect of this ruffle 
is very pretty, and looks as if it 
required about ten times as much 
skill to do it as it really does 
take. 

The Cascade, or Fall of Cards. 

The most difficult, though by 
no means the most spectacular, 
of all card ruffles is the Cascade, 
or fall of cards. This extraor- 
dinary feat consists of holding 
the pack in one hand and let- 
ting the cards drop one at a 
time successively into your 
other hand so that they will form a stream between them 
as shown in Fig. 24. 

To do this ruffle, grip the pack between your fingers and 
thumb exactly as if you were going to elongate the cards, 
and hold your hand so that the cards are in a vertical posi- 
tion, as is also shown in the picture. Next, hold your left 




Fig. 24.— The Cascade 



CARD SLEIGHT OF SKILL 73 

hand directly under your right and squeeze the cards as 
previously described. Now, instead of applying enough 
pressure to spring the card out of your hand, you gradually 
relax the pressure so that the cards will fall separately, and 
each in turn at space intervals of about half an inch. 
The bow of the cards together with falling so close one 




4 

Fig. 25. — The Projectile and Boomerang Cards 



after the other will keep them from breaking apart, hence 
they run in a perfect stream imtil they reach your other 
hand. It is easy to make them fall a foot or eighteen 
inches when you have become an adept at the ruffle. 

The Projectile Cards. This makes a fine finale to the 
series of card ruffles described in this chapter. By projectile 
cards I mean that you throw cards with such force and such 
skill that they go sailing through the air to the different 
parts of the hall or theatre. Single cards can be thrown a 



74 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



distance of thirty or forty feet before they lose the energy 
you have imparted to them and fall, while by pasting two 
cards together you can make them cover distances of sixty 
to seventy-five feet. 

To throw a card, grip a corner of it between your forefinger 
and middle finger with the opposite corner resting on the 
ball of your thumb as shown at A in Fig. 25. Now bend 
your hand, with the card in it, of course, toward your body 
and suddenly throw it out and away from you; at the same 
instant let go of the card, when it will sail away in a more or 
less straight line. 

The Boomerang Cards. By boomerang cards I mean cards 
that you throw with such force and give to them such a 
sudden rotatory motion that they will sail into the air a 
dozen or twenty feet and then return to you when you can 
catch them either in your hand, or, if you practise diligently 
enough, in a pack of cards which you hold in your other 
hand. 

To throw a card and make it return to you, hold it exactly 
the same way as though you were going to throw it out as a 
projectile card, but instead of simply throwing out your 
hand and releasing the card you make the latter describe a 
curve as indicated by the successive pictures shown at B in 
Fig. 25. This imparts to the card a rotary motion, that is 
it makes it spin on an axis at right angles to its surface like 
a boomerang. 

A little practice will enable you to catch on to the knack 
of throwing the projectile and boomerang cards, and per- 
sistent practice will further enable you to throw them with 
certainty and precision. 



PART II. 
THE LATEST COIN TRICKS 



Coin tricks may be classified under three general headings 
and these are one, those in which either prepared cards are 
used or some little artifice is employed; Pwo, those that depend 
on actual apparatus; and, three, those that require skill. 
Like other branches of magic, the finest effects are produced 
by combining two, and sometimes all three, of the above 
classifications. 



« 



CHAPTER V. 



PARXOR TRICKS WITH COINS. 

THE MAGNETIZED COIN. 

The Effect. A half-dollar is borrowed from a spectator, 
and this you stand on its rim in an upright position near 
the ends of your fingers, where it balances. Holding a little 
magnet above and near the upper part of its rim, you grad- 
ually move the former in the arc of a circle toward your 
hand when the coin follows it and lies down on your fingers. 

Presentation. As a matter of fact you can do the trick 
just as well by holding the tip of the forefinger of your other 
hand near the rim of the upright coin, as the magnet has 
nothing to do with it except to heighten the effect. 

To do the trick, place the head of a common pin between 
two of the fingers of your left hand where you can get a 
tight grip on it with the pin in an upright position as shown 
in Fig. 26. Now borrow a silver coin and then show both 
sides of your hand in which you have the pin, but keep your 
hand in motion while you do this, to keep the pin from 
being seen. 

Next, stand the coin upright on your fingers so that it 
is in front of, close to, and resting against the pin. The latter 
will steady it and keep it from falling, and it will seem to 
the spectators that you are really balancing it. Having 
done this for a moment, hold the little magnet, with your 

77 



78 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



other hand, of course, or the tip of your forefinger, half an 
inch from the upper edge of the coin, and as you gradually 
describe the arc of a circle, indicated by the curved arrow, 
you just as gradually relax the pressure of the joints of 
your finger on the head of the pin, when the coin will slowly 
recline until it lies flat on your fingers. 

In concluding the trick, throw the coin into the air and 
catch it with your other hand, and at the same time spread 




Fig. 26 —The Balancing Coin. 



your fingers apart and drop the pin, when you can show 
your left hand to be without preparation. This is a good 
one. 

THE ILLUSIVE COIN. 

Quite a number of the very best parlor tricks can be 
performed with the aid of the illuswe coin and among them 
are the changing coin, the multiplying coin, the appearing 
coin, the disappearing coin, the appearing card, etc., etc. 
Since the same prepared coin is used for all of the above 
effects I shall have to tell you about it first. 

The Prepared Coin. This consists of a coin, the inside of 
which is turned out so that only a shell of it remains, as 



PARLOR TRICKS WITH COINS 



79 



shown at A in Fig. 27. In all the tricks where it is used it 
is placed over another coin and so covers up the latter. 
When this is the case, they have the appearance of a single 
coin, but when separate they look like two coins. A nest of 
three coins is made, that is, a shell fits over a solid coin, 
and over this there is a second shell. In buying these coins 
from a dealer ask for shell coins. 

THE CHANGING COIN. 

The Effect. You show a silver quarter of a dollar, and 
lay it on a table; then place the back of your hand over it. 
On removing your hand, the coin will be found to have 
changed into an entirely different one. 

^ SOLID COIN 



6- CROSS-SECTION 
OF SHELL COIN 

Fig. 27 —The Shell Coin 

Presentation. When you show the coin first, it is the 
top side of the shell that the spectators see and, of course, 
the real coin that it is to change into is inside of it. You 
now lay the coin and shell on the table with the good side 
of the shell up and moisten the back of your left hand with 
a little glycerine. 

Now when you do the trick, lay the back of your hand on 
top of the shell coin and press it down hard with the other 
hand. On lifting up your hand, the shell will stick to it and 
the other coin will come into view, or, as it appears to the 




INSIDE OF SHEILLCOIN 




SCUD COIN THAT FITS 
IN IT 



80 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



spectators, the quarter of a dollar will have changed 
into the other coin, which is usually an English penny. 

THE MULTIPLYING COIN. 

The Effect. You show a coin and lay it on the back of 
your left hand, then make a pass with your right hand over 
it, when it will grow into two coins; again pass your hand 
over the coins and they will multiply into three coins. 
Once more you stroke the coins, and a fourth one will 
materialize, then a fifth coin appears, and, lastly, as a 
cHmax a sixth coin joins the others. 

Presentation. While the effect which is given above 
says that five coins are produced from the first one, you 
can multiply the original into two coins easier, though the 
effect of producing five coins is correspondingly greater. 

To produce two coins from the first one, you use a double 
shell coin, that is the solid coin nests in a shell and this shell 
nests in a second shell. In passing your hand over the 
coins you remove the top and larger shell coin, then make 
another pass and take off the next and smaller shell coin, 
when the real coin comes into view. 

Where the original coin is to be multiplied into five coins, 
you have to palm a second set of three nest coins, in which 
two of them are shell coins and the third is a real coin 
inside of the latter as before. This last nest of coins is 
palmed* in your right hand. After you have shown the 
first nest and multipHed them you make another pass and 
lay down the nest you have palmed. Then with each 
succeeding stroke, or pass, you uncover the under coin, and 
so you have six coins at the end. 

*How to palm a coin will be explained in Chapter 3 of this part. 



PARLOR TRICKS WITH COINS 



81 



THE APPEARING CARD ON THE COIN. 

The Effect. This is a bright little trick, and one that 
never fails to please as weU as to mystify. You ask a 
spectator to choose a card from a pack and replace it again. 
This done, you show a coin, lay it on the table, place the 
pack on top of it, blow on it and lift it up, when a miniature 
card will be seen on top of the coin, and on examining the 
pack the chosen card will be found to be missing. 

Presentation. Of course the coin is a shell one and of 
course you force the card. After you force the card you 
make the pass and bring it to the top of the pack, palm it, 
and get rid of it. Before you do the trick you lay on top of 
the solid coin a miniature duplicate card of the one you are 
going to force, and place the shell coin over it. When you 
press the pack down on the shell, the latter sticks to it by 
virtue of a little dab of wax which you have secretly placed 
on the back of the former. 

THE WIRELESS COIN. 

The Effect. Since coins are hard and fast pieces of metal, 
a trick in which they multiply, are reduced in number, or 
vanish entirely is always surprising, providing the spectators 
do not fathom the secret of it, and it is the magician's 
business to prevent this from happening. 

But here is the effect of the wireless coin : you show three 
coins in your right hand, which you hold at arm's length, and 
then with a Httle talk about the possibility of material 
objects passing unseen through space, you proceed to demon- 
strate it by causing one of the coins in your right hand to 
travel with the speed of a wireless wave and quite as invi- 
sibly over to and i^to your left hand. 



82 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



Presentation. In the first place you must have a wireless 
coin and the way it is made is Hke this: a groove is cut, or 
filled, in and around the rim of an Enghsh penny, or a two- 
shilling piece, or an American two-cent piece or a silver 
quarter of a dollar, and it is then sawed in two a little out 
of the middle so that the two pieces are of different sizes as 
shown at A in Fig. 28. Now snap a tight-fitting rubber 
band into the groove to hold the pieces together, as at B. 
When thus held together the coin looks like a single one, 



but when you fold the smaller piece over the larger one, as 
at C, it will have every appearance from the front of being 
two coins. 

Now for the trick: Lay the wireless coin which is folded 
up to look like two coins on the palm of your right hand 
with an ordinary coin of the same kind beside it and palm* 
another coin of the same kind in your left hand. As you 
close your right hand over the coins, fold back the wireless 
coin, when the pieces will snap together again. You are 
ready now to show the coin in your left hand and on opening 
your right hand you show that only two coins remain. 

*How to palm a coin is explained in Chapter 3 of this part. 




Fig. 28 —The Wireless Coin. 



PARLOR TRICKS WITH COINS 



83 



THE VANISHING COIN. 

The Effect. Here is a transparent trick but none the 
less difiicult to see through. You take an ordinary glass 
goblet and place in it two coins, holding it in a horizontal 
position, as shown at A in Fig. 29. Since the mouth of the 
glass is entirely covered with the palm of your hand, it is 
obviously impossible for either of the coins to escape. 
Then turning the glass right side up, only one of the coins 




Fig. 29.— The Vanishing Coin. 



will be found in the goblet, the other one having mys- 
teriously vanished. 

Presentation. It goes without saying that our worthy 
friend, the shell coin, is also used for this trick. In doing 
it, lay the edge of the shell coin on top of the soHd coin as 
shown at B. Now palm a coin that is like the soHd coin in 
your left hand, and place the latter over the foot of the 
goblet, when the coin cannot be seen. 

To make one of the coins disappear, bring the glass to an 



84 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



upright position, when the shell coin will cover the solid 
coin on reaching the bottom of it. The two coins become 
one coin as far as the eyes of the spectators are concerned 
and you can then show the duplicate coin in your hand. 
You can now pass the glass and the coin in your hand for 
examination, but in order to let the coin in the glass be, 
examined you must palm off the sheU first. 

THE CHINESE COIN TRICK. 

The Effect. Of course you know that Chinese coins have 
holes in them and so do Belgian coins, too; but Chinese coins 
are mysterious-looking pieces of currency, and for this 
reason they should be used for this particular trick. Pass 
for examination a Chinese coin and a string about i8 inches 
in length and ask that a spectator thread the string through 
the coin. 

This done, have him hold the ends of the string, one in 
each hand, as shown at A in Fig. 30. Next you borrow a 
handkerchief and throw it over the coin, as at B, and plac- 
ing your hand under the former you extract the latter from 
the string, when all is immediately examined by the specta- 
tors again to prove that "there is no trick in it." As neither 
the coin nor the string is prepared, the effect is very mysti- 
fying, for, as every one knows, it is exceedingly hard to pass 
a solid through a soHd. 

Presentation. The secret of this popular trick Hes firsty 
in using two Chinese coins exactly alike; second, in substi- 
tuting one for the other, and thirdy in the way you loop the 
string around the coin you have palmed. You begin by 
palming one of the coins and giving the other coin and the 



PARLOR TRICKS WITH COINS 



85 



string for examination. A spectator then passes the string 
through the hole in the coin and holds an end of the former 
in each hand. 

Still palming the first coin, you borrow a handkerchief 
and throw it over the coin on the string for since this is a 




6- THE H ANDKERCHIEIF SUCCESSIVE STAGES OF 
ON THE STRING LOOPING THE STRINGON 

THE COIN 

Fig. 30— The Chinese Coin Trick. 



it must therefore be covered up. The moment you get your 
hands under the handkerchief you slip the coin that is on 
the string over to the left-hand side a couple of inches, but 
it must still be covered. Your next move is to work the 
coin that you have palmed on to the center of the string. 

To do this, you cannot, of course, actually thread the coin 
on the string, but you loop the string on to the coin so that 
when the spectators see it they think you have knotted the 
string on the coin originally upon it, so that it will be harder 



86 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



to get off than ever. But what you really do is to pass the 
middle of the string, which should be held somewhat slack, 
through the hole in the coin, as shown at C. 

Now pull it on through, as at D, and bring the looped 
part of the string around the sides of the coin, as shown at 
E, until all parts of the string are in a line with each other, 
as at F, This will hold the coin, which you have palmed, 
tight in the middle of the string, and yet enable you to take 
it off in an instant. Ask the spectator who is holding the 
string to "draw harder on the ends so that the string will 
be taut.'' As he is about to do so, you pretend it is not 
tight enough, and having closed your left hand around the 
coin that is actually on the string you slide it toward the end* 

Take this end of the string out of his hand for a moment 
and say, "Kindly do it this way,'' and when you hand the 
string to him again, see to it that your left hand, in which 
you still hold the coin that is really on the string, is so near 
to the end of it that he will have to grasp it inside of your hand. 

You can now slip your left hand off the end of the string, 
with the coin in it, and drop the latter into your pocket or 
otherwise get rid of it. You are now on safe ground, so 
take the handkerchief off the coin that is looped on the 
string, as if you were looking to see what progress had been 
made, but in reality to show the spectators that is is still there. 

Now to take the coin off, which you can do either under 
cover of the handkerchief or in full view, grip the little part 
of the string that runs across the hole, pull up on it, and at 
the same time pull down on the coin (which you can do with 
one hand) when the loop straightens out and, naturally, 
the coin drops off. 



CHAPTER VI. 



COIN TRICKS WITH APPARATUS. 

THE DISAPPEARING COIN. 

The Effect. A coin borrowed from and marked by a 
spectator, is placed in a little oblong box with a sliding 
cover. To prove that it is in the box, you shake it, when 
the coin can be heard rattling against the sides. On pulling 
out the lid, the box is shown to be empty. 

How the Box is Made. The box, which goes by the 
name of rattle-box on both sides of the Atlantic, is not 
intended as a trick in itself but rather as a means of dis- 
appearing a coin where it is to be made to reappear 
somewhere else. 

The box, which is about the size of a playing card on the 
sides, I inch high on the outside, and inch high on the 
inside, has a sliding cover, and this latter has one of the 
ends of the box secured to it, as shown at A in Fig. 31. It 
must be clear now that when the cover is drawn out, the 
end of the box is open, and that when it is held in your 
hand, as shown in the illustration, and a coin is dropped 
into the box it will slide down and into your palm. 

So much for the secret of how the coin is removed from 
the box, and now for the secret of why the box rattles when 
the coin is no longer there. There are two bottoms to the 
box, a false and a true one, and between them is inserted a 

87 



88 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



strip of brass which is just as wide as the insdde of the box 
and about i inch long, as shown at B. Wnen you shake 
the box lengthwise, the strip slides from end to end, and on 
striking them it sounds exactly as if the coin were still in 
the box. When, however, you shake the box sidewise there 
will be no sound, as the metal strip takes up all the space. 
On rattle-boxes that are sold by dealers in magical appara- 



tus there is a spring that presses on the strip of metal and 
keeps it from moving except when you press on the bottom 
of the box at a certain point. By working this spring you 
can make the box rattle when you want it to, but no one 
else can unless he knows the combination. 

Presentation. To use the rattle-box, hold it in your left 
hand, as shown at C, and ask a spectator to mark a coin 
and drop it into the box. The instant the coin strikes the 
bottom it sHdes into your hand. Having the coin in your 
left hand, take the box in your right, shake it forth and back 




CROSS-SECTION OF THE 
RATTLE SOX 



Fig. 31. — The Disappearing Coin Box. 



com TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 89 



when the rattle proves conclusively enough that it is still 
there. 

Next, lay the box on the table and pass the coin, (secretly 
of course) into a ball of yarn,* or any other place where you 
want it to appear; having done this, shake the box once 
more to prove the coin is still there. Then for the benefit 
of your audience make some appropriate passes and a few 
remarks to convey the impression that you are transporting 
the coin invisibly through the intervening space; now open 
the box and show that the coin has disappeared. Unwind 
the ball of yarn, or open up the other apparatus and produce 
the marked coin. 

THE COIN IN THE BALL OF YARN. 

The Effect. This is a startling way to find the coin 
which you have disappeared from the rattle-box described 
above, although, of course, you can vanish the coin in any 
other manner you wish to. After you have placed in the box, 
the coin that is borrowed from and marked by a spectator, you 
pass a ball of yam and a tumbler or goblet for examination. 

Next, you ask a spectator to place the ball in the glass and 
then to unwind it. As he does so and nears the center of 
the ball, the coin will be seen to be surrounded by ajfew 
turns of yarn, and as the end of it is reached the coin falls 
into the glass, where the owner himself takes it out and 
identifies it as the one he originally marked. JX^- 

The Apparatus Required. This consists of a flat tin 
tube, just a trifle thicker and a Httle wider than the coin 
and about 2 inches long, as shown at ^ in Fig. 32. You 
will see from the illustration that one end projects a little 

*The next trick explains how this is done. 



90 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



and curves so that you can get a good grip on it. You now 
take some coarse woolen yarn and wind it around the tube 
. into a ball until the surface of the latter is flush with the 
end of the tube as shown at B. The ball Hes on your table 
so that the projecting end of the tube does not show. 

Presentation. After you have obtained possession of 
the coin that the spectator has marked, you pick up the ball 



of yam, slip the coin into the tube, when it will fall to the 
bottom of it and you then pull out the tube, (without the 
spectators observing that you do so) and this leaves the 
coin in the center of the ball of yam. 

All you need to do now is to place, or have a spectator 
place, the ball in a glass and unwind it as shown at C, when 
the coin will finally come into view and drop into the glass. 
How you passed the marked coin into the ball of yarn is an 
inexplicable mystery to those who stand outside the secret 
chamber of the Magi but who have never entered it. 



B-THE COIN HOLDER 
AND COIN IN THE 
BALL OF YARN 





C-UNWINDING THE BALL 
OF YARN 



Fig. 32.— The Mystic Ball of Yam. 



COIN TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 91 



THE VANISHING COIN. 



The Effect. This is a very clever coin trick that you 
can do anywhere and at any time. Further, it is equally as 
mystifying a way to vanish a coin as the rattle-box, previously 
described, and it has the added advantage of costing less 
and doing entirely away with a visible piece of apparatus. 

The effect is like this: You borrow a coin and have it 
marked as in the preceding tricks; then you throw a borrowed 
handkerchief over it and have a spectator catch hold of it 



COIN 




A-HOLDlNGTHt HANDKERCHIEF 
OYERATUMBLER 

Fig. 33 —The Vanishing Coin. 



GLASS 
DISK 
POSITION OF 
COIN AND 
GLASS DISK 



with his thumb and fingers through the handkerchief, as 
shown at A in Fig. 33. This done, you ask a spectator to 
hold it over a glass of water and when you say ^'Oney two, go,^ 
to drop it. 

Your audience (if not too large) hears the coin strike the 
bottom of the glass, yet, on examining it, the coin will be 
found to have vanished as completely as if it had never 
existed. You can then produce it in the ball of yam or in 
any other manner you may wish to. 

The Apparatus Required. All you need is a disk of glass 



92 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



of the same diameter and thickness as the coin you are 
going to borrow. This is shown at B. 

Presentation. The first thing you do is to palm* the 
glass disk. After passing the tumbler for examination you 
place it on your table and fill it partially with water. Next, 
you borrow a handkerchief and, lastly, a coin; this you 
have a spectator mark and you then hold it in the tips of 
your fingers of the hand in which the glass disk is palmed 
as at C. 

Your move now is to throw the handkerchief over your 
hand that is holding the coin and the glass disk. You must 
now palm the coin and bring the glass disk into the middle 
of the handkerchief and forthwith hand it to a spectator to 
hold over the tumbler of water. When you say **Go" he lets 
the glass disk (which he and the other spectators think is the 
coin) drop into the tumbler, and as the clink it makes when 
it strikes the bottom sounds exactly like a coin they have 
aU-sufficient proof that the coin is in the tumbler. 

In the meantime you have passed the marked coin into 
the ball of yarn or elsewhere, and then on removing the 
handkerchief from the glass the coin will have vanished, for 
the very good reason that the glass disk, which is trans- 
parent, cannot be seen. 

THE TRAVELLING COIN. 

The Effect. Usually a trick mystifies an audience in 
proportion to its simplicity, and the travelling coin is one of 
this kind. You borrow (as usual) a coin of small denomina- 
tion, preferably a silver one, though a cent will do very well. 
While some one present is getting the coin, you pass a goblet 

*See the next chapter. 



COIN TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 93 



for examination, and on obtaining the former you drop it 
into the latter. 

A few magnetic passes will cause the coin to travel up the 
side of the goblet until it reaches its edge, when you take it 
out and return it (contrary to most borrowers) to the 
spectator who was so good as to loan it to you. 

Presentation. To prepare for this trick, place a little 
dab of magicians' wax on one end of a hair lo inches, or a 
foot, in length, or you can use a very fine black silk thread 
if you are working on a plat- 
form. Place another dab of 
wax on the other end of the 
thread and then stick both 
ends to two different buttons 
of your vest. 

On receiving the coin from 
the spectator, you press it 
against one of the dabs of wax 

on one of your vest buttons Fig. 34.-The Traveling Coin. 

SO that the wax will stick to the coin and come off the button. 
You will now have the coin on one end of the thread and the 
other end will, of course, still be fastened to your vest button. 

The rest of the Uick is easy, for you need only to drop the 
coin into the goblet, which you hold in your left hand, and 
move it very gently and slowly away from your body, when 
the hair or thread will pull the coin up until it reaches the 
top of the glass. As you take it out, scrape off the wax with 
your finger-nail and let it drop. By making magnetic passes 
over the goblet the motion of it receding from your body 
will not be observed. The way it is worked is shown ia Fig. 34. 




94 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



THE SPIRIT RAPPING COINS. 

The Effect. One, two, or three coins are borrowed from as 
many different spectators, and then you pass out a goblet for 
examination. Placing the goblet on your table, you drop 
the com, or coins, into it. Assure your audience that the 
coin is under the mystic spell of your spirit control and that 
the Big Injun Chief (Indian chiefs are always good spirit 

WAND 

2) 




I 



B-THE COIN ON THE 

HAIRORTHREAP O COIN c-THE COIN IN THE GOBLET 

Fig. 35. — The Spirit Rapping Coins. 

controls, so mediums tell me) will answer any questions put 
to him through the tapping of the coins. / 

Go on to explain that one jingle of the coin, or coins, 
means "no''' and that three jingles means "yes." Now let 
the audience ask the questions and the coins will jingle out 
the answers, all of which will result in no end of fun and 
not a httle mystery. 

Presentation. It is better to learn to do this trick with 
one coin first, but two or three coins will make it more 
effective. Take a hair, or a fine black thread, about lo or 
12 inches long and fasten each end to the ends of your 



COIN TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 95 



wand with a little dab of wax, as shown at A in Fig. 35. 
Now when you have passed the glass for examination and 
borrowed the coin, press the latter on the wax that is on 
one end of the hair, or thread, and at the same time remove 
it from your wand, when the coin (if you let it but, of course, 
you won't) would dangle from the end of it, as at B, 

Now drop the coin into the goblet with your left hand 
and hold your wand just high enough above the glass to 
make the hair, or thread, nearly taut, as shown at C. When 
a spectator asks a question, you give your wand a quick but 
gentle jerk and this jingles the coin in the glass. 

Where two or three coins are used, you must have the 
free end of the hair, or thread, branch out into two or three 
ends with a dab of wax on each one and stick each of the 
coins to one of the ends. It is a little harder to do the 
trick with two or three coins than it is with one, but it is 
much more effective. 

THE MULTIPLYING COIN PLATE. 

The Effect. You hand several coins to a spectator and 
ask him to count them out on a plate where every one in 
the audience can see them. As soon as he has done so, you 
pour the coins into his hands or into an empty hat, as you 
wish. Again request the spectator to count them, when 
they will be found to have multipHed in a very mysterious 
manner. 

How the Plate is Made. The tray, or plate, has two 
bottoms with a slot between them, a trifle thicker and wider 
than the coins which are used and in which half-a-dozen of 
the latter are contained. It is far better to buy a tray or a 



96 THE BOY MAGICIAN 

plate of this kind of a dealer in magical apparatus than it is 
to make one. 

However, if you want to make one, get a common white 
dinner-plate and cut out of heavy white glazed cardboard a 
disk just large enough to fit the bottom of it, as shown at A 
in Fig. 36, and glue it on. Now cut out of heavy cardboard, 
or pasteboard, another disk, which must be a little thicker 



A- CR05.5-5E:CTI0N OF 




THE COIN PLATE A-FIRST DI5K O THIRD PI5K 

Fig. S6.— The Multiplymg Coin Plate 

than the coins, next cut a slot in this just a Httle wider than 
the coins, see and glue it on to the disk on the plate. 

Finally, cut out a third disk, C, of glazed cardboard and 
glue it on to the disk with the slot in it. When the glue is 
dry, paint the edges with some white enamel and your 
multiplying coin plate is ready for use. 

Presentation. Hold the plate in your left hand near the 
slot, and keep the slot toward your body while the spectator 
counts the coins out on the plate. The moment he has laid 
down the last coin, take the plate in your right hand, which 



COIN TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 97 



brings the slot out and away from your body and pour the 
coins into his hands, or a hat, and ask him to count them 
again, as you think there is a possibility of his having made 
an error. 

As the coins in the slot pour out together with those on 
the plate, he has, of course, just that many more in his 
hands than he had when he counted them out on the plate. 

THE APPEARING COIN WAND. 

The Effect. After doing a couple of coin tricks, you ask 
to borrow another coin, but, pretending the spectators are 
not speedy enough, you say, ^^Never mind, I'll just get it out 
of this gentleman's ear"; fitting action to the word, you touch 
his ear with the tip of your wand and there, right on the end 
of it, is a coin. 

This you take off, and proceed to materiaHze a coin at a 
time on the end of your wand from various other parts of 
the spectators anatomy such as the nose, the open mouth, 
the back of the neck, and then to cap the climax you reach 
high in the air with your wand and pluck a coui from the 
very nothingness of space itself. The effect of this coin 
production is wonderful, and especially so when used in 
connection with the Aerial Treasury which will be described 
in the next chapter. 

How the Wand is Made. The coin wand is thicker by, 
perhaps, an eighth of an inch than an ordinary wand, and 
the ends of it are, usually a little larger. Whatever its 
size may be, you should have a wand of wood exactly like 
it that you use all through your performance. 



98 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



The wand is made of a length of metal tubing, enameled 
black, and contains a mechanism that brings into view and 
conceals, as you will it, a large silver coin. 

First of all, the coin is sawed into three pieces, and these 
are bevelled as shown at -4 in Fig. 37. To the lower end of 
each piece is soldered a bit of watch-spring, the free ends of 
which are in turn fixed to a rod that nms down the tube. 
The lower end of the rod is bent and forms a stud, all of 
which is shown at B, 



STUD 



wire: 



SLOT 

B. THE COIN WAND 
A a 

L 



a. 
4-r 



COIN CUT HERE 

A. CROSS-SECTION OF 
COIN, SHOWING CUTS 



WATCH SPRINGS 



4- 



3' 



C.THECOIN FOLDED 
UP IN ENP OFWAND 



Fig. 37.— The Appearing Coin Wand. 



The stud projects through a slot in the lower end of the 
tube at the point where you hold it naturally in your hand. 
Now when you press the stud down to the bottom of the 
lot, the pieces of coin fold over each other, as at C, and 
are drawn down and concealed in the end of the tube. 

When you want to make the coin appear on the end of 
the wand, you press up on the stud and this forces the rod, 
and, hence, the pieces of the coin, out of the end of the tube, 
while the springs spread them apart until the pieces fit 
exactly together in a line, when the coin has every appear- 
ance of being a soHd one. 



COIN TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 99 



You should always produce the coin under cover of an 
object such as a nose, an ear, etc., or if you produce it from 
the air, wave your wand at the same time that you press 
the stud, as this will prevent the spectators from seeing the 
pieces emerge at the end of the tube. 



CHAPTER VII. 



SLEIGHTS WITH COINS. 

In performing coin tricks it is of the greatest service to 
know how to palm them, make passes, and do other sleights 
with them. By combining a Httle pure sleight-of-hand with 
various artifices and an occasional piece of apparatus you 
wiU be able to perform any ordinary coin trick known to 
the art of magic. 

VARIOUS WAYS TO PALM A COIN. 

In doing tricks with coins, either use new real ones or 
imitation ones, as the milled edges on them are sharp and 
this makes them much easier to palm and to manipulate. 
Imitation coins can be purchased at magical supply houses, 
and for some tricks, such as The Aerial Treasury^ they are 
better than real coins as they are much lighter and, there- 
fore, can be handled more easily. 

The Straight Palm. Lay the coin on the tips of your 

middle finger and your third finger as shown at A in Fig. 38. 

Now close your fingers quickly, when the coin will be brought 

exactly in the right place in the palm of your hand so that 

you can get a good grip on it between the ball of your thumb 

and the mount of your hand as shown at B. You can now 

open your fingers, when the coin will stay there as at C, 

and a spectator would never guess by looking at the back of 

your hand you had a coin concealed in the palm of it. 

100 



SLEIGHTS WITH COINS 



101 



The Third-Finger Palm. This is a much easier way to 
hold a coin than the straight pahn described above. To do 
it, place the coin on the tips of your fingers, as explained 
m the straight palm and shown at ^ in Fig. 38, and bring 
it to the palm of your hand, as shown at 5 in Fig. 38. 




Fig. 39.— The Third Fmger Pahn. 



Fig. 38.— How to Pahn a Com. 



On opening your fingers, grip the coin by the edge of it 
that is nearest your wrist and lift it up until it is in an upright 
position in your hand, as shown at A in Fig. 39. Looking 
at the back of your hand, your fingers will not be straight, 
as in the straight palm, but they will be gracefully bended, 
as shown at 5. It is a good variation of the straight palm. 



102 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



i The Wand Palm. This is the easiest way of all for con- 
cealing a coin, or coins, in your hand, and you can use it 
with good effect in many tricks. It consists of placing one 
or more coins loosely in the palm of your hand and then 
holding your wand in the same hand, which gives you a 
good excuse for closing your fingers. 

The Thumb Palm. Place 
the coin on the tips of your 
forefinger and middle finger, 
as shown at A in Fig. 40, and 
then close your fingers, which 
will make the coin turn over 
and at the same time bring 
the edge of it directly between 
your thumb and the root of 
your forefinger, as shown at B. 
You can then show the back 
of your hand, and the fact 
that your thumb presses 
against your finger will not be 
obvious to the spectators if 
you refrain from holding it in 
this position too long. 
The Middle-Finger Palm. You can change over from 
the thumb pahn, just described, by placing the tip of your 
middle finger on the edge of the coin, as shown at A in Fig. 
41, while you have it between your thumb and forefinger 
(see B in Fig. 38) and then opening up your thumb when 
the coin will take on the position shown at B in Fig. 41. 
The Two-Finger Palm. In doing coin tricks it is a good 




Fig. 40.— The Thumb Pahn. 



SLEIGHTS WITH COINS 



103 . 



plan to use as many different means of concealing the coins 
as you can, for by so doing you throw the spectators entirely 
off the track. Hence this palnij which is not a palm at all, 




Fig. 41.— The Middle Finger Palm. 




Fig. 42.— The Two Finger Pahn. 



but a clever manipulative sleight by which you can show 
both the front and back of your hand while the coin is in it. 

To do it, place the coin on the tips of your middle and 
third fingers, as shown at ^ in Fig. 42, and then sHde it 



104 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



with your thumb so that its lower edge rests on the second 
joints of your fingers, as at B. Now bend over your fingers 
and grip the top of it between the first joints, as at C, 

when you can show the front of 
your hand, as at D as well as the 
back of it. 

The Continuous Front and 
Back Hand Palm. This exceed- 
ingly clever continuous front 
and back hand palm was orig- 
inated by T. Nelson Downs, the 
greatest coin manipulator that 
ever lived. This sleight is not 
an easy one to do, but if you 
intend to become an expert in 
the art you should by all means 
learn it. 

The Effect. You show a coin 
on the tips of your fingers and 
make a move as though you 
were going to throw it up in the 
air. You then show the front of 
your hand, and next the back, 
then the front again, and once 
more the back. This you can 
do as many times as you wish 
and finally produce the coin from an3rwhere you like. 

Presentation. You begin by laying the coin on your 
middle and third fingers so that the lower edge of it is on 
the second joints, and then you grip it between the inside 




Fig. 43. — ^The Continuous Front 
and Back Coin Palm. 



SLEIGHTS WITH COINS 



105 



edges of your forefinger and your little finger as shown 
at A in Fig. 43. 

Now bend your middle and third fingers down until they 
are under the coin, as shown at B, and, with the aid of your 
thumb, press back on the lower edge of the coin with these 
fingers, when it will turn as if it were on a pivot between 
your forefinger and little finger and it will be back of your 
other two fingers, as at C. Next, straighten out your middle 
and third fingers, when the coin will be fairly on the back 
of your hand, as at D, and you can then show the front 
of it. 

To transfer the coin from the back of your hand to the 
front of it, you have only to reverse the movements of your 
fingers, when it will again be between them in front, as at 
the beginning, and you can show the palm of your hand. 
In making these sleights, cover up the movements by giving 
your hand a wavy up-and-down motion. Just to show what 
practice will do, Mr. Downs is able to back palm six coins 
at a time and produce them singly from the tips of his fingers. 

THE FRENCH DROP, OR TORNIQUE. 

The Effect. You hold a coin horizontally between the 
fingers and thumb of your left hand and take it with your 
right, whence it disappears from the latter and you make it 
reappear from under your arm, inside the bottom of your 
trousers-leg, the toe of your shoe, or any other place that* 
fancy may dictate. 

Presentation. Hold the coin between the forefinger and 
middle finger and thumb of your left hand, as shown at 
A in Fig. 44. Then you move your right hand, which is 



106 THE BOY MAGICIAN I 

open, and with your thumb down, over to your left hand 
and run your right thumb under the coin as shown at B. 
At this instant you close your right hand, but instead of 
grasping the coin as the movement indicates to the specta- 
tors you have done you open the fingers of your left hand 
(under cover of the right), when the coin drops into your 
left hand. 

As you do not close the fingers of your left hand, this com- 




FiG. 44.— The French Drop. 



pletes the illusion, which makes the coin appear to be in 
your right hand. You can then reach to any part of your 
own or some one else's body and, bringing the coin to your 
finger tips, produce it. 

To Disappear the Coin. This is my own addition to the 
French Drop and it enables you to show both palms of your 
hands empty at the same time. To do it, instead of merely 
letting the coin drop into your left hand you run the fingers 
of your right hand around and to the back of your left hand 



SLEIGHTS WITH COINS 



107 



and then let the coin drop between your forefinger and 
middle finger, as shown in Fig. 45. 

The fingers of your right hand act as a depth-gauge to 
keep the coin from slipping too far through the fingers of 
your other hand, and just as the coin sKps through to the 
right distance so that you can grip the edge of it between 
your fingers and it cannot be seen from the front, you can 
open both hands and show the pahns of them empty. You 
can produce the coin by bringing it to the tips of your fingers, 



as in the straight French drop, or you can suddenly throw 
it into your right hand, when to the spectators it will seem 
to have come out of space like a meteor and with a con- 
siderable amount of force. 



While this trick has been a stock one for many years, the 
method of performing it which I shall describe is the latest 
one and in my opinion the best that has yet been produced. 
The credit of it is due to the late Charles Bertram, who was 
one of England's greatest magicians. 

The Effect. In general the effect of The Aerial Treasury, 
which is also caUed The Aerial Mint, Catching Money from 




Fig. 45. — ^To Disappear and Reappear a Coin. 



THE AERIAL TREASURY. 



108 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



the Air, The Miser^s Dream, etc., is to pick coins out of the 
air, from the different parts of the spectator's features and 
clothing, and other places, and to throw them into a bor- 
rowed hat until it is half-full, or seemingly so. 

Preparation. Get as many coins, real or imitation, the 
latter are the best, because they are lighter, as you want to 
produce. Twenty or twenty-five coins will make a good 
showing, and forty or fifty will seem like twice that nimiber 
to the spectators. 



ROLL OF COINS 




Fig. 46— The Production of Coins. 

Make two stacks of about twenty coins each and tie up 
each stack with a black thread. Place one of these stacks 
under the lower left-hand edge of your vest (inside of which 
you have sewed an elastic) to hold it tight against your body. 
Place the other stack under your vest on the right-hand side. 
You will need a single coin, preferably a real one, for the 
producing one, your regular wand and your coin wand if 
you want to use it. 

Presentation. Begin the trick by palming the single coin 
secretly or by holding it in your hand under cover of your 



SLEIGHTS WITH COINS 



109 



wand, as described in The Wand Palm. Now go among the 
spectators and ask to borrow a silk hat. If this is not forth- 
coming you will have to be satisfied with a derby, and this 
you hold in your right hand. 

Now reach into the air, or somewhere else, bring the palmed 
coin to your finger tips and, showing it, actually throw it 
into the hat. Shake the latter a couple of times so that 
the spectators can hear it, and under the cover of this move- 
ment you can get hold of the stack of coins that is under 
the left side of your vest; this done, change the hat from 
your right hand to your left so that the stack of coins are 
inside of it, as shown in Fig. 46. 

You can now turn the hat upside down and show the 
inside of it, as the coins are between your hand and the 
hat and cannot, therefore, be seen. It is easy to break the 
thread that holds the coins together by pressing on the 
roll and you can now let them fall one at a time as you 
apparently pick them one at a time out of the air, or else- 
where, with your right hand. 

This is done by holding a single coin in your right hand, 
palming it in any one of the numerous ways I have described 
in this chapter, and then bringing it to the tips of your 
fingers. Then you make a move just as though you were 
throwing it into the hat, and at the same time shake the 
latter, when it will seem to the spectators exactly as if the 
coin had gone into it and struck another coin. 

So illusive is this effect that you can say, ^^Now I will 
throw this coin through the crown of the hat," at the same 
time making the movement of throwing it, but palming it 
and shaking the hat. Again you pretend to throw the coin 



110 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



up and let it fall into the hat, which it apparently does, and 
the clink of the coins carries conviction in the minds of the 
audience that it really does so. 

Another good move is to announce that the next coin 
which you pick out of the air you will blow invisibly into 
the hat. You apparently place the coin in your mouth, but 
of course you palm it and shake the hat to make the coins 
chink. 

After catching twenty coins the stack will be used up. 
At this stage of the trick, get your coin wand and pick out 
two, three or more coins from the surrounding space with it; 
as you will need both hands to do this with, have an assist- 
ant, whom you have previously coached to shake the hat, 
hold it for you. In this way the illusion is kept up. 

Next take the hat and reaching into it pick up a handful 
of the coins, pour them in a stream back again^ but in doing 
so you keep half a dozen of them in your hand, and then, 
touching some spectator's nose, you let the coins fall into 
the hat. Then get hold of the second stack of coins from 
under your vest and break the thread that binds them; as a 
grand finale^ hold your hand high above the hat and let 
them run in a silver stream into it. And there you have 
The Aerial Treasury. 



PART m, 
THE BEST TRICKS WITH BALLS 



A trick or two with balls will lend variety to your program, 
and as variety is the spice of magic as well as of life your 
offering will be the more acceptable for it. Now there are 
three classes of ball tricks, and these sue first, those that are 
purely mechanical in operation; second, those that depend on 
some little device or artifice; and third, those that require 
manipulative skill. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



BALL TRICKS WITH APPARATUS. 

Here are several ball tricks that need no skill to execute 
and which you can do without previous practice, at the 
same time, they will mystify any audience, though they are 
better adapted for small than for large ones. 

THE MAGIC BALL AND VASE. 

The First Effect. You show a black baU and a vase. 
The ball disappears from and reappears in the vase in the 
most extraordinary manner. This trick vase, in which the 
ball is the size of a marble, can be bought of dealers in mag- 
ical apparatus for twenty-five cents or less, or in its largest 
size, in which the ball is about one and a hah inches in 
diameter, for perhaps a dollar and a hah. 

The Second Effect. By using two balls and two vases 
you can make the ball disappear from one vase and reappear 
in the other vase and back again if you choose. This is a 
much better effect than using a single ball and vase, as it 
then partakes of the nature of a fully fleged trick. The 
small-sized ball and vase make a very pretty parlor trick, 
while the billiard-ball size can be used for platform work. 

The Third Effect. You show one of the vases empty and 
place in it a small red silk handkerchief, and you show the 
other vase with the ball in it. Now with appropriate patter 



114 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



and gestures and music you show that the handkerchief has 
changed into a ball in the first vase and that the ball has 
changed into the handkerchief in the second vase. 




0-DOING THE BALL 
VASE TRiCK 

Fig. 47.— -The Magic Ball and Vase. 

How the Vase is Made. The vase is made in three 
parts, as shown at A in Fig. 47, with the inside turned out 
so that it is just large enough to hold a ball when it is closed. 



BALL TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 115 



The outside is turned in a series of concentric rings, as is 
also shown at A. 

The secret of the magic vase lies in the third and middle 
part which consists of a concentric ring with the hah of a 
ball turned on it, and the under side of which is hollow. 
This concentric ring, with what appears to be the ball, fits 
on the lower part of the vase while the top of the vase fits 
over it. A real ball that just fits in the vase is also included 
with it. The concentric rings make it impossible for the 
spectators to see whether the middle part is with the top or 
bottom of the vase. 

Presentation in General. When you wish to show the 
vase empty, you grip the concentric ring that forms the 
middle part of it and lift it off with the top. As this part 
contains the half-ball, it appears to the spectators as if the 
vase were empty, as at B, To make the ball apparently 
appear in the vase you place the top on the bottom and 
then lift it off leaving the middle part on the lower part of it, 
as shown at C. 

Presentation for the First Effect. Show the solid ball 
first and the vase empty, as at B, and then put the top on 
it. Now place the ball in your mouth and pretend to swal- 
low it, and then open the vase by gripping the top above 
the concentric ring of the middle part, when the ball will 
apparently be seen in it, as at C. Close the vase again, 
produce the ball from your mouth, and then open the vase, 
this time with the middle part on the top, when the vase 
will be empty as at B, 

Presentation for the Second Effect. This is a duplica- 
tion of the first effect, but inasmuch as two vases are used 



116 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



and the ball traverses, or is alleged to traverse, the space 
between them it makes a better trick of it. Show both 
vases empty and replace the top on each one. Then show 
the sohd ball and pretend to pass it into the first vase, but 
really palm it, or better, vest it, that is place it under your 
waistcoat, the elastic in the edge of which will prevent it 
from dropping out. 

Now open the first vase so that the half-ball shows when 
it will apparently have passed into it; then put the top on 
the second vase and immediately remove it when the half- 
ball will be seen in it, and on opening the first vase the ball 
has disappeared. If you wish to, you can now recover the 
second vase and make the ball vanish from it and produce it 
from your vest. 

Presentation for the Third Effect. To produce this 
effect you secretly place a small red silk handkerchief in the 
hollow part of the vase, and fit the middle part over it. 
When you are ready to do the trick you show this vase 
first, which appears to have the ball in it. Next, you show 
the other vase, empty, and place a dupHcate red silk hand- 
kerchief in it. This done, you put the covers on both vases, 
and on removing them the handkerchief will appear where 
the ball was and the ball where the handkerchief was 

-THE OBEDIENT BALL. 

The Effect. This is by no means a new trick, but it is 
one you can easily make and do, and as it leads up to two 
other tricks the effects of which are similar but much more 
wonderful I will describe it briefly. First, you show a ball 



BALL TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 



117 



with a string through it, and tap it with your wand to prove 
that it is solid. 

Now step on one end of the string and hold the other 
end in your right hand, as shown at A in Fig. 48. Next, 
you sHde the ball up and down the string to show that it 
moves freely and that it will fall by gravity the same as any 
other body. This done, you hold the ball near the top end 
of the string, when it begins slowly to descend. You ask 



the spectators to call out when they want the ball to stop 
and it accordingly does so. 

How the Ball is Made. Get a wooden ball of any size, 
but preferably about two inches in diameter, and spHt it in 
two. Then with the sharp point of a knife cut a zigzag 
groove in each of the flat surfaces so that they will match, 
as shown at B. Put a string (a piece of fish-line, about a 
yard long, is the best) in the groove and then glue the two 
halves of the ball together. It is then ready for the trick. 

Presentation. It must be clear now that when you step 
on the end of the string and it is slack, the ball will slide 




B-THE HALVES OF THE 
BALL SHOWING GROOVE 




Fig. 48.— The Original Obedient Ball. 



118 THE BOY MAGICIAN ' 

easily on it, but the instant you tighten up on it, it will 
press against the side of the groove and the friction will 
prevent it from sHpping, hence it will stop anywhere you 
want it to. 

THE OBEDIENT ORANGE. 

The Effect. The effect of this is just the same as the 
obedient ball but since you use any orange that may be 
selected and push a piece of fish-line through it with a 



NEEDLE 



TUBE 



THE TUBE USED FOR 
THE OBEDIENT ORANGC 

Fig. 49. — Artifice for the Obedient Orange. 

darning-needle the cause is not easily fathomed even by 
those who know how the obedient ball is made and worked. 

The Apparatus. This consists of a bent metal tube, 
about three-eighths of an inch in diameter at its large end, 
one-eighth of an inch in diameter at its small end, and about 
i}4 inches long, as shown in Fig. 49. This tube is slipped 
on the string, one end of which is threaded through a darning- 
needle. 

Presentation. After having some one choose an orange, 
you pass the needle and string through it and then, secretly 



BALL TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 119 



of course, you force the tube into the orange. You are 
ready now to go ahead and do the trick, which works exactly 
on the same principle as the obedient ball. 

THE NEW OBEDIENT BALL. 

The Effect. You show a ball with the string through it, 
as in the older kind, and also demonstrate that it sHdes 
freely on it. Then stepping on one end of the string and 




Fig. 50.— The New Obedient Ball. 

holding the other end in your hand, the ball not only slides 
down and stops where the spectators want it to, but it runs 
up the string and stops on command. A very puzzling 
experiment, to say the least. 

How the Ball is Made. The ball is hollowed out inside 
and has two grooved wheels, one of which is larger than the 
other, fixed to the same spindle, and this spindle rotates in 
bearings inside the ball, as shown in Fig. 50. The string in 
this case is really two strings, one end of the first one being 
tastened to the small wheel and one end of the second one 
being secured to the large wheel. The strings are then 



120 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



wound on their respective wheels and the free ends of each 
pass out of the ball through holes in the opposite sides of it. 

Presentation. Having shown the ball, step on the free 
end of the string that is wound round the large wheel and 
hold in your hand the end of the other string that is wound 
on the small wheel. Now, when you slacken up on the strings 
the ball will run down, and as the upper string unwinds from 
the small wheel, the lower string winds up on the large wheel. 

When the ball is down by pulling the strings taut, the 
upper string is made to wind up on the small wheel, because 
the tension on the lower string is less than that of the large 
wheel and this makes it rotate, when the ball moves up the 
string apparently in defiance of the laws of gravitation. 
Naturally, if the wheels were of the same size there could be 
no upward movement at aU. This application of mechanics 
to the obedient ball produces an astounding effect. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE LATEST BALL TRICKS. 

The foUowing are four of the best and latest tricks with 
balls and while in every case some little artifice is required 
and considerable palming and other hand work is necessary, 
they are not at all hard to learn to do, and you will be able 
to perform them dextrously with a little practice. 

THE FADE-AWAY BALL. 

The Effect. You show a billiard ball and a tumbler of 
water. Then throw a borrowed handkerchief over the ball, 
which you give to a spectator to hold over the glass as 



^ o 

THE GLASS SHELL^^^^^^g^^^ 

B 

Fig. 51— The Fade-Away Ball. 

shown at A in Fig. 51. You now catch hold of one comer 
of the handkerchief and you ask the person who is assisting 
you to let go of the ball on the count of three ; the instant 
he does so you pull the handkerchief out of his hand and the 
ball will have vanished. Then you show the glass of water 
and although the spectators have heard the ball cKnk on 




122 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



striking the bottom of the glass, the ball is not in it, having 
faded away entirely. 

The Apparatus. This trick is a fine modification of the 
disappearing coin in the glass of water, in which a disk of 
glass is substituted for a coin. In the fade-away ball trick, 
a glass shell, see Bj is used that fits over half of the real ball. 
That is all. 

Presentation. Pass a bilHard ball for examination and 
have the glass shell palmed at the same time. When you 
get the ball back, throw over it the handkerchief which you 
have borrowed. Substitute the glass shell you have palmed 
for the ball, and palm the latter. Now have a spectator 
hold the handkerchief with the shell under it over a glass 
of water and tell him to drop it when you give him the word. 
In the meantime you can drop the real ball into your pocket 
or otherwise get rid of it. 

THE APPEARING AND DISAPPEARING BALL. 

The Effect. In the beginning of this trick you show both 
the palms and backs of your hands and then turn your cuffs 
up and over your shirt-sleeves, when a ball will appear at 
the tips of your fingers. Next you rub the ball in your 
hands, and it as mysteriously vanishes. In fact it appears 
and disappears as many times as you want it to, and you 
can show both sides of both hands. This is an excellent 
effect when used in connection with other ball tricks. 

The Artifice. The secret of this trick is a loop made of 
No. 28 or 30 bare copper wire fixed securely to the ball, 
as shown at A in Fig. 52. This loop slips over your thumb, 
and then the ball is in the palm of your hand as at B you 



THE LATEST BALL TRICKS 



123 



simply roll it over to the back of it with your other hand, 
as at C, when you can show the palms of both handsempty. 
By rolling it back again you can show the backs of both 
hands. 

Presentation. In beginning this trick, hold the ball in the 
pit of your arm, then show the palms and backs of both 
hands, but in doing so keep your arm close enough to your 
body to prevent the ball from dropping out. As you turn 



LOOP OF FINE 




B- FRONT OF HAND C- BACK OF HAND 

Fig. 52. — The Appearing and Disappearing Ball. 

up your cuffs you can easily get hold of the ball, and having 
got it slip the thumb of your left hand through the wire 
loop. Copper wire is used because, first, the loop holds its 
shape, and second, the wire is nearly flesh-colored and cannot 
therefore be seen by the spectators, even at close range. 
The same artifice with a hollow ball can be used to make 
a handkerchief disappear, and this will be described in the 
chapter on The Latest Handkerchief Tricks. 

THE CHAMELEON BILLIARD BALLS. 

The Effect. This very pretty and mystifying trick also 
goes under the name of The Color- Changing Billiard Balls. 



124 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



You begin by showing a red billiard ball and a green billiard 
ball, a small red silk handkerchief and a small green silk 
handkerchief, and two glass goblets. 
Having gone through with these preliminaries, you pro- 




B 

Fig. 53 —The Chameleon Billiard Balls. 

ceed to wrap the red billiard ball up in the green handker- 
chief and place it in one of the goblets, and wrap the green 
biUiard ball up in the red handkerchief and place it in the 
other goblet. On removing the green handkerchief, you 
show that the red ball which you wrapped in it has changed 



THE LATEST BALL TRICKS 



125 



its color to green and that the green ball which you wrapped 
in the red handkerchief has changed its color to red. 

Presentation. This trick is purely a matter of a little 
hand work, though you do have to use three balls. Two 
of the balls are green and the other one is red, but only 
one green one and the red one are seen by the spectators. 
You begin by palming one of the green balls in your right 
hand, which, of course you do secretly; next, you lay the 
green silk handkerchief over your left hand, which you 
hold with your palm up and shghtly open. 

This done, pick up the red ball from the table with your 
right hand (you still have the green one palmed in it), as 
shown at A in Fig. 53, and to all intents you place the red 
ball in the handkerchief, but in reahty you put the palmed 
green ball on it and palm the red one. (This change of 
balls is not at all hard to make, as you will find when you 
try it, and a little practice will make you an adept at it.) 
The instant you lay the green ball in the green handkerchief 
wrap it up and place it in the goblet. 

Having, now, the red ball palmed in your right hand you 
lay the red handkerchief over the upturned and shghtly 
open palm of your left hand as before; your next move is to 
pick up the green ball and apparently lay it in the red 
handkerchief, but you switch the balls, as before, and really 
put in it the red ball and palm the green one. As soon as 
this is done, wrap the handkerchief around the ball (which 
is the red one) and place it in the other goblet, as at B. 

Naturally, when you remove the handkerchiefs from the 
goblets the balls will be found to have taken on the color of 
the handkerchiefs they are in. Before you remove the 



126 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



handkerchiefs with the balls in them from the goblets, how- 
ever, get rid of the extra green ball which you still have 
palmed. This you can easily do by dropping it in your 
pocket, or into the well in your table, if you have progressed 
far enough in your magical endeavors to have a special 
table 

THE LATEST BILLIARD BALL PRODUCTION. 

The Effect. This trick, which also goes by the name of 
The Multiplying Billiard Ball and The One to Four Billiard 
Balls, is one of the finest and most convincing tricks in the 
whole realm of magic when properly presented. 

The effect of it is like this : You show a red ball in your 
right hand and holding it between your thumb and fore- 
finger, as shown at A in Fig. 54, you wave your hand and a 
second baU appears between your forefinger and your middle 
finger, as at B; another wave of your hand, and a third ball 
appears between your middle and third fingers, as at C, and 
finally, a fourth ball appears between your third finger and 
little finger as at D. Then they vanish one by one as 
mysteriously as they came. 

The Requisites. For this trick three solid balls are used 
and a hah-shell that will fit over any one of them, as shown 
at £. 

Presentation. The first thinof to do is to vest two of the 
sohd balls so that you can easily get them. You commence 
the trick by showing first the remaining ball with the shell 
over it of which, of course, the spectators are not aware. 
Take this ball between the thumb and forefinger, see A in 



THE LATEST BALL TRICKS 127 




Fig. 54— The Latest BiUiard Ball Production. 

Fig. 54 again, and show both sides of it, holding the shell 
part and back of your hand toward the audience. 
Now place your middle finger below the soHd ball, close 



128 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



to the thumb, as at and give your finger an upward 
motion, which will roll the soHd ball out of the shell; the 
spectators now see the shell between your thumb and fore- 
finger and the soHd ball between your forefinger and middle 
finger, as at G, 

Just as you show the two balls, or rather the outside of 
the shell and the first ball, see B, get one of the vested balls 
with your left hand and palm it, and to convince the spec- 
tators that both balls in your right hand are soHd, approach 
them with your left hand and place the palmed ball in the 
shell; you now take in your left hand the ball with the shell 
on it, and knock it against the other solid ball in your right 
hand. 

Having done this, place the shell and ball again between 
your thumb and forefinger and the soHd ball between your 
middle finger and third finger; repeat the movement of 
rolling out the sohd ball from the shell with your middle 
finger, so that now you can show apparently three balls, 
see C, (of course two of them are soHd and the third is the 
shell) which you prove solid by adding to the shell the solid 
ball which you have vested. 

Now place the shell and ball between your thumb and 
forefinger, one ball between your middle and third fingers, 
and one ball between your third and little fingers; one move 
brings out the sohd ball from the shell, which you roll over 
between your forefinger and middle finger, when you will 
have a ball between each pair of your fingers, as at D, You 
can vanish them in the same manner. To produce of 
vanish the balls requires practice, but you will never regret 
the time you put in on learning to do the trick. 



PART IV. 
CLEVER TRICKS WITH EGGS. 



Tricks with eggs are always egg^-traordinarily good, 
provided the eggs themselves are not eggs-Sictly bad. The 
effect of a clever egg trick is so eg^^-cruciating that the 
average spectator will laugh whether you do the trick eggs- 
pertly or not. For this reason if no other, you should 
include at least one eggs-tra. trick in your repertory. 



CHAPTER X. 



EGG TRICKS WITH APPARATUS, 

Egg tricks are really only modifications of ball tricks, 
but as eggs are good to eat (sometimes) and balls are not 
(except fish-cod balls) the effects produced are quite dif- 
ferent. Whatever the psychology of egg tricks may be the 
fact remains that they make a himaorous appeal to the 
average spectator. 

TO CHANGE A HANDKER CHIEF INTO AN EGG. 

The Effect. You show a silk handkerchief and, gently 
waving your hands, it changes into an egg. You can 
reverse the trick and change the egg back into the handker- 
chief. After having changed the handkerchief into the egg, 
it curiously disappears from your hands and then just as 
curiously reappears again. 

How to Prepare the Egg. The handkerchief is an ordin- 
ary silk one such as magicians use, but the egg is prepared. 
Take a fresh hen's egg of medium size (be sure that it is 
fresh) and blow the contents out of it, which you can do by 
making a very small hole in each end of it. Now make a 
hole about half-an-inch in diameter in one side of the 
hollow shell — it will be jagged around the edge but this 
does not matter — and put it away for twenty-four hours or 
so until it is thoroughly dry. 

Next, melt some paraffine* and pour a tablespoonful of it 

* This can be bought at any drug store. 
131 



132 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



into the shell; now give the shell a swirling motion, so that 
the centrifugal force will carry the fluid wax all around the 
inside of it, and keep this up until the parafhne is cool, when 
there will be a thin layer of it on the inside. Repeat this 
process until the layer is about one-eighth of an inch thick, 
and this will form a backing for the egg-shell so that it can 
be handled without danger of breaking. You can now cut 



out an oval hole in the side of the egg, one inch wide and one 
and a half inches long, as shown at A in Fig. 55, and your 
prepared egg is ready to use.* 

Presentation. First palm the egg, with the opening of it 
out, or you can have it concealed under the silk handkerchief 
you are going to use and then palm it, when you can show 
the handkerchief. Place your hands together with the 
back of your left hand toward the audience and let the 
handkerchief hang down over the back of it, as shown at B, 
Then gently wave your hands and at the same time work 
the handkerchief into the egg, when you can show the latter. 

* Hollow wooden eggs ^ind eggs made of celluloid can be bought of dealers in 
magical supplies. 




Fig. 55. — Changing a Handkerchief into an Egg. 



EGG TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 133 



To produce the handkerchief, you reverse the operation, 
but the effect of changing the egg into the handkerchief is 
not nearly so pretty as changing the handkerchief into the 
egg, for in the former change you have both the handkerchief 
and the egg separately in your hands at the conclusion of 
the trick, while in the latter change you have, at least as 
far[as visibility is concerned, only the egg. 

To vanish the egg entirely, stick a loop of No. 28 or 30 
copper wire to one side of the egg near the hole and run your 
thumb through it exactly as in the ball trick described in 
the preceeding chapter. Then when you want to vanish it 
you need only to roll it over to the back of your hand. 

THE TING-A-LING EGG TRICK. 

The Effect. This trick was worked with great success by 
several world-famous magicians, the first of whom was 
Colonel Stodare, then by Carl Herrmann, and following 
him by the late Alexander Herrmann. The effect is hke 
this : You place an egg in a glass goblet and cover it with a 
colored cotton handkerchief. 

Then take a small blue (any other color will do as well) silk 
handkerchief, and it changes into an egg. At the same time 
your assistant, who is holding the covered glass goblet, 
shakes it from time to time at your request to show that 
the egg is still there and every time he does so you say 
ting-a-ling-a-ling, or at least that is the way Stodare and the 
Herrmanns did and said it. 

Suddenly you show the egg in your hand, which you assure 
the audience — and they will generally believe you — is the 
one that was in the goblet. Now on lifting the large hand- 



134 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



kerchief from the goblet the egg will, in very truth, be 
found to have vanished and the handkerchief, with even 
more truth, will be seen in the glass. 

Presentation. For this trick you require two small blue, 
or other colored silk handkerchiefs, one fairly large colored 
cotton handkerchief, a blown-out egg, and also an egg 
prepared as described in connection with the foregoing trick, 
and a goblet i 

To change the handkerchief into the egg you proceed 
exactly as in the preceding trick. To change the egg in the 




m.9 IN HANOKCRCHIEF 

SMALL SILK 
.HANDKERCHIEF 
CONCEALeP 
IN FOLD 



A- LARGE HANDKERCHIEF B- 

FiG. 56.— The Ting-a-Ling-Egg Trick. 



glass into the handkerchief you fix a fine black silk thread 
to the handkerchief in the center of it and to the other end 
of the thread, which should be three or four inches long, you 
fasten the blown egg with a bit of wax. The arrangement 
is shown at A in Fig. 56. 

Now lay the large handkerchief on your table with the 
blown egg on top of it and make a fold in it. Next, fold the 
small silk handerchief over three or four times each way, so 
that it will be not more than a couple of inches square, and 
lay this in the fold of the large handkerchief, as at B. You 
are now ready to do the trick. 



EGG TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 135 



Hand the goblet to your assistant, then pick up the large 
handkerchief with your right hand with the egg on it. 
Show the egg just before you are ready to drop it into the 
goblet, but in picking it up with your left hand be careful to 
keep it within the bounds of the thread. 

Place the egg in the glass and throw the large handkerchief 
over it, when the small silk one will drop into the glass. On 
lifting up the large handkerchief, you do so by the corners 
that are away from the audience so that the thread will be 
at the back. This will lift the egg out of the glass and leave 
the small handkerchief in it. 

A EE CENT EGG-BAG TRICK. 

The Effect. The egg-bag is one of the oldest of tricks, 
but novel methods of working it have been devised from 
time to time which gives it an entirely fresh interest, and it 
is as mystifying now as it was the day when Adam showed 
it to Eve and their sons Cain and Abel. 

A recent improved egg-bag has a net at the bottom of it, 
as shown at A in Fig. 57. You begin by rolling up your 
sleeves, and then you turn the bag inside out and back 
again to prove that there is nothing in it, not even a cackle, 
when cluck! an egg drops into the net at the bottom of the 
bag. This you remove and lay it on a plate. 

Again you turn the bag inside out and back again and 
throw it into the air, when cluck! cluck! (twice this time) and 
another egg drops into the net and this you also remove and 
lay on the table. Moreover you keep right on repeating the 
process, showing the bag to be empty each time, and both 
the palms and backs of your hands as well, until you have 



136 THE BOY MAGICIAN 

produced a plate full of eggs, after which you can break one 
or all of them to prove that they are fresh from the grocers. 

How the Bag is Made. Like all egg-bags, this one is 
made for the purpose. The bag can be made of any material 
but canton flannel has about the right weight. Make it 
about eight inches wide and fourteen inches long, and sew a 
net with half-inch square meshes in it to one of the open 
sides. 

The secret of the bag, however, lies in having one of the 



/4 " ^ FLAP 




^-THE EGG BAG WITH 8-CR055-5ECTIO H OF 

NET 60TTO M THE BfKG 

Fig. 57.— The New Egg Bag Trick. 

canton flannel sides double, and under it are haK-a-dozen 
pockets, each of which is just large enough to hold an egg. 
The bottom edge of each pocket has an elastic sewed to it 
so that when an egg is placed in it, it cannot slip out but 
you can squeeze it out. The scheme is shown at B. 

Presentation. To cause the bag to produce the eggs, you 
place a real one, or a celluloid one, in each pocket. Now 
crumble the bag up carelessly (but not so carelessly that you 
crumple up the eggs) and lay it on your table in such a 
way that the outline of the eggs cannot be seen by the 
spectators. 



EGG TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 137 



When you are quite ready to do the trick, take the bag 
in both hands and be certain to have the pockets toward 
you. Now turn the bag inside out to show that there is 
nothing in it and turn it back again. Next grip the bag with 
your left hand in front of it and your right hand back of it 
and then with the fingers of the latter, which are inside of 
it, and your thumb, which is outside of it, squeeze down on 
the first pocket until the egg drops out of it and into the 
net. 

Repeat this operation until there are no more eggs in the 
bag. Even if you use real eggs you can throw the bag into 
the air and catch it without much danger of breaking them, 
but as celluloid eggs are lighter and practically unbreakable 
they are very much easier to work with. 

THE LATEST EGG-BAG TRICK. 

The Effect. This is the latest and greatest of all egg-bag 
tricks. You show a small bag, turn it inside out and back 
again, as before, and reaching in you bring forth an egg. 
There is nothing new or startling in this, but it gets mighty 
interesting when you not only throw the bag into the air 
but dash it on the floor, twist it up, and pound it on the 
table, and then on reaching dehberately into it you produce 
another egg just the same. 

The supreme test comes, however, when you show the bag 
empty as before and let a spectator hold it by the ends while 
a second spectator reaches in and finds the bag empty. 
Now with your sleeves rolled up and the second spectator 
holding on to the wrist of your right hand you show both the 
palm and the back of it; then reach slowly into the bag and 



138 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



produce another egg. You can repeat this six or eight times 
and finally break one of the eggs to prove them genuine. 

The Bag and the Eggs. The bag is a small one, that is 
to say about nine inches wide and twelve inches long. It is 
made with one of its sides double, as shown at B in Fig. 58, 
the inside piece forming a long pocket. The eggs, which 
are made of thin rubber like that used for toy balloons, are 
compressible but the instant the pressure is removed they 
will return to their natural shape 




A-THE BAG OFTHEBAG 

Fig. 58 —The Latest Egg Bag Trick 

Presentation. Prepare for the trick by placing half a 
dozen of the eggs in the pocket of the bag. Turn the bag 
inside out and back again and when you want an egg, reach 
in under the double side and into the pocket, get one of the 
eggs, and bring it forth. 

By using these rubber eggs you can show by every appar- 
ently possible means that the bag is empty. After you have 
produced several eggs and laid them on a plate you can 
easily pick up a real egg from the shelf of your table, or 



EGG TRICKS WITH APPARATUS 139 



which you have concealed under a handkerchief, and lay it 
on the plate with the others; this is the one that you will 
break, of course. 

THE LATEST EGG PRODUCTION. 

The Effect. The baldrtffect of this trick is that you pro- 
duce a number of eggs from an assistant's mouth; moreover 
you do so with your sleeves rolled up, and it is certain that 
you neither palm them nor load them into his mouth and 




Fig. 59.— The Latest Egg Production. 

there are far too many to be held in his mouth at one time. 
The effect is therefore astonishing and also highly amusing. 

The Eggs Required. These articles are the thin rubber 
eggs described in the foregoing trick. 

Presentation. The funniest way to present this trick is 
to have two assistants, one a white fellow and the other a 
colored fellow, and use about eight rubber eggs, four of 
which are dyed black. Prepare for the trick by placing the 
four white eggs in the white fellow's mouth and the four 
black eggs in the black fellow's mouth. 



140 THE BOY MAGICIAN 

When you are ready to do the trick have the two con- 
trasting dromios come upon the platform. First give the 
white one a slap on the back when he will open his mouth 
and a white egg will appear in it, which you remove and 
place on a plate. Then give the black fellow a slap on his 
back and a black egg will appear in his mouth, which you 
remove to the merriment of aU the beholders. See Fig. 59. 

Alternately you slap the white fellow and the black fellow, 
and as often as you do so a white egg or a bad egg — excuse 
me, I mean a black egg — will appear. With a Kttle funny 
talk, explaining why this is as it should be, you will bring 
down the house. It is a good trick with which to conclude 
a performance. 



PART V. 

UP-TO-DATE HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS. 



In the whole category of magical tricks there are no others 
so pretty as those in which bright-colored handkerchiefs 
play a part. Moreover, handkerchiefs are easy to handle, 
and the very size and nature of them lends enchantment to 
an act. 

Like tricks with cards and coins, those with handkerchiefs 
may be divided into three classes, first, those that require some 
little artifice; second, those that use apparatus; and third, 
those that need skill. Like the former tricks, those that 
combine two, or perhaps all three, of the above classes are, 
generally speaking, the most effective. 

In the followiug chapters it is not my intention to attempt 
to divide the tricks according to the above classification, but 
to describe them in the order in which, to my way of thinking, 
they will be the most serviceable to you. 



CHAPTER XI. 



HANDKERCHIEF PRODUCTIONS AND 
VANISHMENTS. 

There are several methods by which you can produce and 
vanish handkerchiefs, and by using them you can not only 
vary the routine of the various tricks you are doing but you 
can combine them to form new tricks. For producing and 
vanishing handkerchiefs, use small ones made of China silk, 
as this material can be pressed into a very small space and 
instantly expands on being released. The best size to use 
is about eight inches on the sides, though they may be as 
large as nine by twelve inches if necessary. 

METHODS OF PRODUCING HANDKERCHIEFS. 

Production from the Armpit. This is an easy and smooth 
way to produce a handkerchief. Roll it up into a little ball 
and place it in your left armpit. When you come before 
your audience you show both sides of your hands and then 
pull up your coat-sleeves. Pull up your right sleeve first 
and then your left one, which brings your right hand to your 
left armpit, where without a single false move you get the 
handkerchief. 

Production from a Match-Box. Push the inside box of a 
safety match-box out about half-way, as shown at ^ in. 
Fig. 60; next, wad up a silk handkerchief and cram it into 

143 



144 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



the open end of the box. Now, when you want to produce 
the handkerchief, pick up the match-box and hold it in your 
left hand with the open end toward the back, as shown at B. 
This done, take out a match and strike it, for some definite 



HANDKERCHIEF IN 
THIS PART OF BOX 




B*HOW THE HAND* 
KERCHIEF IS OBTAlNm 

Fig. 60.— The Match-Box Production. 



A- THE FINGER 
SHELL 




B-THE SHELL ON 
YOUR FINGER 



Fig. 61.— The Fmger Shell Production. 



purpose such as lighting a candle. Close up the match-box | 
by pushing in the inside box, and as you do this it presses 
the handkerchief out of the open end and right into the palm 
of your hand. 



HANDKERCHIEF PRODUCTIONS AND VANISHMENTS 145 



The Finger Shell Production. This is a wonderfully clever 
production. It consists of a piece of thin sheet brass formed 
and painted to look like the inside of your middle finger. It 
is therefore as thick as your finger, about one and one-eighth 
inches wide at its widest part and two inches long, as shown 
at A in Fig. 6i. 

The sides of the shell clip the sides of your finger and the 
ends of it just fit the first and third joints as shown at B, 
The handkerchief is placed a- the extra finger 

into the shell which is then ^ 

in turn cliped to your finger. 
You can now show both sides 
of both hands and the shell 
cannot be seen by the specta- 
tors even at close range. By 
placing your hands together 

.1 T- n J B-THE EXTRA FINGER IN place: 

you remove the shell and pro- ^^^^ ^^^^^ p^^^^^^.^^ 

duce the handkerchief. 

The Extra Fingei Production. This is another clever 
way to produce a handkerchief after showing both sides of 
both hands. In this case a whole finger is made of thin 
sheet-metal as shown at A in Fig. 62 and painted flesh-color. 
The handkerchief is placed inside the finger, and the pro- 
jecting pieces on the open end make it easy to hold it in 
place between your middle and third fingers, as shown at B, 

Although you now have five fingers and a thumb, the 
extra finger will not be noticed by the spectators, especially 
if you keep your hand moving a little meanwhile. When you 
wish to produce the handkerchief, bring your hands together 
and get the finger between the palms of them with the open 




146 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



end toward your finger tips, when you can work the hand- 
kerchief out of it. 

METHODS OF VANISHING HANDKERCHIEFS. 

Vanishing by the Wand. The first thing you have to do 
to vanish a handkerchief by this method is to put your wand 
under your left arm. Lay the handkerchief over your left 
hand, as shown in Fig. 63, with one corner of it in the palm 
of your hand; place the palm of your right hand against 
that of your left, and begin to roll the handkerchief, when 
you will have it in a compact Httle baU. 



length, rub your fingers together, as if you were gradually 
rubbing the handkerchief away, and then open it. The 
effect is amazing. 

The Rubber Ball Vanisher. There are two methods of 
vanishing a handkerchief by means of a rubber ball. The 
first is by using a loop of wire over your thumb, and the 
second is by means of an elastic sewed to your vest under 
your armpit. In either case, use a hollow rubber ball about 




Fig. 63.— How.to Hold the 
Handkerchief. 



Now, quickly take the hand- 
kerchief in your right hand and 
reach for your wand and at the 
same instant close your left 
hand, when the spectators will 
think it is in the latter. Lay 
your wand on your table over 
the well in it and let the hand- 
kerchief drop into it. Keep your 
left hand closed all the while 
and then holding it at arm's 



HANDKERCHIEF PRODUCTIONS AND VANISHMENTS 147 



an inch and a quarter in diameter, and cut a circular piece 
out of it about three-fourths of an inch in diameter. 

For the loop vanisher, fasten a loop of wire formed of a bit 
of No. 28 or 30 bare copper wire, as shown at ^ in Fig. 52 
on Page 123. To vanish the handkerchief, pick up the ball 
under cover of it and slip the loop of wire over the thumb 
of your left hand, as shown at 5 in Fig. 52, which will bring 
the ball in the palm of your hand with the hole away from it. 

Now place your palms together, with the handkerchief 
hanging down between them, and with a wavy motion, to 
waltz music if possible, work the handkerchief into the ball 
and then roll it over the back of your hand, as at C in Fig. 
52, when you can show both palms empty. You can repro- 
duce the handkerchief, but the effect is not as clean-cut as 
vanishmg it. 

The Bautier Pull Vanisher. This method of vanishing a 
handkerchief is practically instantaneous and is called the 
Bautier pull in honor of Bautier de Kolta who invented it. 
The apparatus consists of a thin brass tube about half an 
inch in diameter and one inch long, and closed at one end, 
as shown at A in Fig. 64. 

This tube has a Httle bail and fastened to it is a piece of 
thin, strong fish-Une, about three feet long, while the other 
end is secured to a strap, B, that is buckled aroimd your 
right arm between your wrist and your elbow, as at C. 
You buckle this on over your shirt and then put on your 
coat. The exact length of the fish-line must be such that 
when your arms hang straight down by your side the tube 
will be half-way between your right elbow and wrist. . < , 

To vanish a handkerchief with the Bautier pull, hold your 



148 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



arms up and close to your body; when in this position the 
fish-Hne is long enough for you to easily hold the tube in your 
right hand in a perfectly natural way. Thus ready, you 
come before the spectators and then work the handkerchief 
into the tube. When it is in completely you suddenly 
shout, "Go!" and spread out your arms, when the cup shoots 
up your sleeve with lightning-like speed. 

The Elastic Cord Pull Vanisher. This is a modification 
of the Bautier pull, and for some handkerchief tricks I like 



it better. In this case the tube is fastened to one end of a 
piece of strong, black, round, silk elastic about two feet long, 
and the other end of the elastic is fastened to the strap which 
buckles round your right arm. 

This you buckle over your shirt-sleeve as before and run 
it up and through the right armhole of your waistcoat, under 
it, across your back and out of the other armhole of your 
vest, which brings the cup just outside of it. Now put on 
your coat and you are ready to vanish the handkerchief. It 
is easy at any stage of a trick to get hold of the tube, and 




C 



Fig. 64.~The Bautier Pull Vanisher. 



HANDKERCHIEF PRODUCTIONS AND VANISHMENTS 149 

having done so you work the handkerchief into it as before. 
When it is in and you let it go, it flies up under your armpit 
between your waistcoat and your coat with invisible rapidity. 

There are other easy, pleasing, and extremely mystifying 
methods for producing and vanishing handkerchiefs, and 
some of these will be described in the next chapter in con- 
nection with a number of tricks which I have selected 
especially for your delectation. 



CHAPTER XU 



HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS NEW AND NOVEL 

The following handkerchief tricks range from the easiest 
and simplest imaginable to those that require considerable 
apparatus and skill. A good plan to follow is to take each 
one in the order in which it is written down in this chapter 
and do it over and over until you can execute it without a 
fluke. With most of the tricks there is no such word as 
failure, and you need not fear to try them out on your friends 
as soon as you have done them a few times by yourself. In 
fact this is the surest way of becoming an adept 

THE PHANTOM HANDKERCHIEF. 

First Effect. This trick ought to come under the heading 
of spiritualistic manifestations, but as it is done with a 
handkerchief I will explain it here. You begin by pulling 
up your sleeves, handing a stout cord about two feet long 
to a spectator, and asking him to tie an end tightly around 
each of your wrists. When this is done, there should be 
about ten or twelve inches of cord between them, as shown 
at -4 in Fig. 65. 

Next, pass a silk handkerchief for examination and ask 
another spectator to tie it around the cord and tightly enough 
so that he will know you could not untie it without taking a 
great deal of time and trouble. When the corners of the 

150 



HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS NEW AND NOVEL 151 



handkerchief are tied together you turn your back to the 
spectators and in the space of a few moments you about-face 
again, with the handkerchief still tied in a loop but lying 
across the cord. 

Second Effect. In this effect you pass three handker- 
chiefs of different colors for examination and have each one 
tied in a loop on the cord. You now request the spectators 
to select one of the handkerchiefs, and whichever one is 
selected you remove it from the cord. 




Fig. 65. — The Phantom Handkerchiefs. 



Presentation. For the sake of making the description of 
the trick as simple as possible, let us suppose you only have 
one handkerchief tied around the cord. Now with the aid 
of your right hand you slip the handkerchief over your left 
hand and on to your wrist, as shown at B, All you have 
to do to get it off is to sKp it under the cord where it is tied 
around your wrist and pull it on through. Where three 
handkerchiefs are used, you can remove any one or all of 
them from the cord, one at a time, as described above. 

THE ENCHANTED HANDKERCHIEFS. 

First Effect. Here is a simple, mystifying, and sure way 
to produce a handkerchief or vanish it, and the beautiful 



152 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



part of it is that you need neither apparatus nor skill to do 
it with. You take a square of newspaper, roll it up into the 
form of a cornucopia, as shown at A in Fig. 66, fold over the 
end of it, and then produce a little colored silk handkerchief 
from it. Or you can place a handkerchief in the cornucopia 
and then on, unrolHng it, the handkerchief will have disap- 
peared. In either trick, you show both sides of the paper 
before and after. 




Fig. 66. — The Enchanted Handkerchiefs. 



Second Effect. This effect constitutes a real trick. You 
roll up a square of newspaper into a cornucopia, as at A in 
Fig. 66, and place a yellow silk handkerchief in it, fold over 
the open end, and lay it on your table in plain sight. Now 
you roll up another cornucopia, fold over the end, and lay 
it on another table where it can be seen. 

Then you explain with much detailed information that 
you will cause the handkerchief to pass out of the first cor- 



HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS NEW AND NOVEL 153 



nucopia down the table leg under the floor, up the second 
table leg, and into the other cornucopia, where it will be 
made whole again. Surely enough, on unrolling the first 
cornucopia, the handkerchief will be found to have vanished 
and on unroUing the second one, it will be seen inside of it. 

Third Effect. This is a very fine and elusive effect and 
can be done in any parlor or on any stage, however large. 
You roll up a square of newspaper and place in it a small 
silk flag, in the manner described above, fold over the end 
and lay it on a chair. 

Next, you show a glass water decanter of the shape pic- 
tured at B, or an Erlenmeyer flask ^ see C, that is empty, 
and this you cover with a red cotton bandana handkerchief 
and set it on your table. Now on opening the paper cone 
the handkerchief will be found to have disappeared, and on 
removing the large handkerchief which covers the decanter 
or flask, the silk flag will be found inside of it. 

How the Cornucopia is Made. The whole secret of the 
above tricks lies in the paper cornucopia, which is so made 
that a pocket is formed in it. That is to say, the paper is 
really double and a space between its layers forms the pocket. 

To make the cornucopia, cut a folded sheet of newspaper 
so that it will be about ten and one-haK inches wide and 
fourteen inches long. Now paste the two sheets together, 
leaving the space inside the dotted lines free so as to form a 
pocket, as shown at A in Fig. 67. When the paste is dry, 
the double paper will appear to be simply a single sheet and 
you can show it freely on both sides. 

Presentation of the First Effect. To make a handker- 
chief appear in the cornucopia, secretly place a small silk 



154 THE BOY MAGICIAN i 

one in the pocket and keep the mouth of it away from the 
spectators. To make the cornucopia, cHp the lower left- 
hand corner with your thumb to the back of it and the upper 
right-hand corner with your thumb in front of it as shown 
at B. 

Now when you roll it into the shape of a cornucopia, the 
opening of the pocket will be at the large end o£ the comu- 




Ptg. 67.— The Enchanted Handkerchiefs. 



copia, as at C. Fold over this end and mutter your mystic 
words and make your magic passes. This done, reach into 
the pocket and withdraw the handkerchief, and then unroll 
and show both sides of the paper. 

To make a handkerchief disappear from the cornucopia, 
you need only to reverse the above process, that is, you roll 
up the paper into a cornucopia, then put the handkerchief 
into the pocket, and when you unroll the paper the handker- 
chief has completely vanished as far as the spectators are 
concerned, and you show both sides of the paper. 



HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS NEW AND NOVEL 155 



Presentation of the Second Effect, To make a real trick 
of the enchanted handkerchiefs you use two prepared news- 
papers. In the pocket of one of them you place a silk 
handkerchief. Roll this paper up into a cornucopia. Fold 
it over and lay it on your table or a chair. 

Show the other paper, roll it up into a cornucopia, and 
place a silk handkerchief in the pocket; now fold it over and 




Fig. 68.— The Enchanted Handkerchiefs. 



lay it on another table or a chair; after giving your little 
patter about passing the handkerchief from one cornucopia 
to the other you show that it has gone from th^ first one 
and that it has appeared in the second one. 

Presentation of the Third Effect. For this brilliant trick 
you make use of one paper cone, two red silk handkerchiefs, 
and a glass water decanter or a quart Erlenmeyer flask,* 
and a large red cotton handkerchief. Take one of the small 
red silk handkerchiefs and wad it up — do not fold it — into 

* A glass water decanter with a short neck is the best, but an Erlenmeyer flask 
which is a staple piece of chemical glassware, is generally easier to get. 



156 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



as small a bundle as you can, and push this into the neck of 
the decanter, or flask, as shown at A in Fig. 68. 

Keep the large cotton handkerchief over the decanter, or 
flask, all the time before you are going to do the trick. 
When you want to show that the decanter, or flask, is empty 
you pick it up by the neck with your fingers, as at and 
with the back of your hand toward the spectators. This 
prevents them from seeing the handkerchief in the neck. 

Just as you throw the large cotton handkerchief over the 
decanter, or flask, you push the red silk handkerchief into 
it with your forefinger, as at C, where it expands until it 
apparently fills it. Now set it on the table and then go 
ahead and wrap the paper up into a cornucopia, and explain 
that you are going to pass the little red silk handkerchief 
from the paper cone into the decanter or flask. This done, 
show the decanter which has the handkerchief in it and 
unroll the cone, when the handkerchief will have disap- 
peared 

THE COLOR-CHANGING HANDKERCHIEFS. 

First Effect. You show a sheet of cartridge paper* on 
both sides and roll it up into a tube about two inches in 
diameter; to make it hold its form you slip a rubber band 
over each end, and having formed the tube you hold it up 
so that the spectators can see through it. 

Having shown it empty, hold it in a vertical position, as 
at A in Fig. 69, and over the top of it lay three small silk 
handkerchiefs, say red, green, and blue; and these you 
push down into the tube with your wand; as the ends of 

* This is heavy brown wrapping paper. 



HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS NEW AND NOVEL 157 



them go into the tube three other ends are seen coming out 
of the lower end of the tube. Taking hold of these ends you 
pull out the handkerchiefs which are found to have changed 
to peacock-blue, crimson-pink, and yellow, as these are 
the complementary colors of red, green, and blue. 



PASTED ALONG 
DOTTED LINES OPIH 




A 

Fig. 69— The Color-Changing Handkerchiefs. 



Second Effect. Show the tube empty as before, hold it 

in the same way, and lay over the upper end of it three silk 
handkerchiefs, but in this case have one red, one white, and 
one blue. Push these into the tube with your wand, and on 
puUing the end that begins to show at the lower opening of 



158 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



the tube, the three silk handkerchiefs will be found to have j| 
changed into a beautiful silk flag. 

Third Effect. The tube and vari-colored handkerchiefs 
are shown and the latter are pushed down into the former 
as in the above effects. On pulling the handkerchiefs out 
at the bottom they will be found to be tied tightly together. 

How the Tube is Made. This is my own modification of 
the paper cornucopia described in connection with the 
Enchanted Handkerchiefs, Take two sheets of cartridge 
paper about ten inches on the sides as shown at B and paste 
them together as far back as shown by the dotted Hues. 
This leaves an opening clear through between the sheets of 
paper. 

Presentation of the First Effect. For this color change 
you use six small silk handkerchiefs, namely red, green, blue, 
peacock-blue, crimson-pink, and yellow. Fold up the last 
three handkerchiefs separately and lay them smoothly in 
the opening that is formed between the two sheets of paper. 

When you are ready to do the trick, pick up the paper at 
the sides, as shown at C, so that your fingers, and thumbs 
clip the openings to keep them closed, and then turn the 
paper over, using your fingers as the pivotal point, showing 
both sides of it. This done, roll it into a tube about two 
inches in diameter, and slip a couple of rubber bands around 
it so that it will hold its form. 

Next, hold the tube in a vertical position and pull in on 
the inside sheet until it is separated from the outside sheet 
and stays in place. Now lay the red, green, and blue hand- 
kerchiefs on top of the tube and push them one at a time 
into the opening between the sheets of paper when the 



HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS NEW AND NOVEL 159 



peacock-blue, crimson-pink, and yellow, will be forced to 
the opening at the bottom, where you pull them out. You 
can now show both sides of the paper again, as the first 
three handkerchiefs are in the opening between the sheets of 
paper and cannot be seen. 

Presentation of the Second Effect. This is worked in 
exactly the same way as the first effect, but you use a red, 
a white, and a blue silk handkerchief and a silk flag about 
eight by twelve inches on the sides. The latter you place 
between the two. sheets of paper before you do the trick. 
Then you push in the handkerchiefs and pull out the flag 
at the other end of the tube. This is a prettier effect than 
the first one, and it is easier to do. 

Presentation of the Third Effect. In performing this 
effect you tie three small handkerchiefs together by their 
corners (do not tie them too tight, and press the knots flat 
with a hot iron). Place these handkerchiefs in the opening 
between the two pieces of paper; then push in the separate 
handkerchiefs at the top and pull the knotted ones out at 
the bottom. 

THE PENETRATING HANDKERCHIEFS. 

First Effect. You begin by showing one, two, or three 
pretty Httle nickel-plated stands about six inches high, as 
shown at A in Fig. 70, which you set on your table. Next, 
you show one, two, or three ordinary tumblers, which you 
invert and set one on each stand. And, finally, over each 
glass you place a tube made of writing-paper. 

Next, you take one, two, or three silk handkerchiefs of 
different colors and explain that you intend to pass each one 



160 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



into one of the inverted tumblers. So saying, the handker- 
chiefs disappear from your hands one by one, and on remov- 
ing the paper tubes each tumbler will be found to contain a 
handkerchief. 




A 3 

CROSS-SECTION 

Fig. 70 —The Penetrating Handkerchiefs. 



Second Effect. This is very much more mystifying than 
the first effect because you place the tumblers right side up 
on the pedestals. Hence the name Penetrating Handker- 
chiefs. Otherwise the effect is identical with the first one. 

The Pedestals. These are clever mechanical devices, and 
you can purchase them of dealers in magical apparatus. 
Each stand is formed of a base and a disk, on which the 
tumbler rests, and these are joined by a tube of smaller 
diameter. The latter is slotted lengthwise, and through this 
projects a stud, which is fixed to the lower end of a piston 



HANDKERCHIEF TRICKS NEW AND NOVEL 161 



that slides up and down in the tube, as shown in the cross- 
section at B, 

The disk has a hole in its center that is just the size of the 
inside of the tube. The piston is now pushed down and the 
handkerchief is put into the tube through the hole in the 
disk. To force the handkerchief out of the tube and into 
the inverted tumbler, you need only to press up on the stud, 
and you do this just as you get the paper tube over tie 
tumbler. 

The Tumblers. For the first effect the tumblers are 
ordinary ones, but for the second effect the bottoms are cut 
out of them. 

Presentation. Before doing the trick, place a colored silk 
handkerchief in the tube of each stand. Then you show 
the tumblers, and if they are ordinary ones you invert them 
on the stands, or if they have had the bottoms cut out then 
place them right side up on the stands. 

Next, make a tube for each timibler by rolling up a sheet 
of writing-paper and pinning it together; then set it over the 
tumbler, and as you do so with one hand pull the stud up 
with the other, which will raise the piston, and this in turn 
pushes the handkerchief into the tumbler. 

Having accomplished this part of the trick, you are ready 
to vanish the handkerchiefs, and this you can do one by one 
or all together, which latter is perhaps the better way. A 
very excellent way to do this is to use the Bautier pull, or 
an elastic pull, which you will find described in the preceding 
chapter. 



PART VI. 

EXPERIMENTS WITH THE WAND. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE USE OF AND TRICKS WITH THE WAND, 

THE USE OF THE WAND. 

While the use of the wand by the magician seems to the 
spectators to be merely the result of tradition, it is really a 
very important part of his paraphernalia, for with it he is 
able to cover up a multitude of minor deceptions. 

You have learned from the foregoing pages how useful it 
is in palming large and more or less difficult articles, such as 
cards and handkerchiefs, and how convenient it is to make 
them disappear by simply dropping them into the well of 
your table. 

Wands are made in various styles and sizes according to 
the taste and individual requirements of the performer. It 
is a great mistake to have the diameter of your wand too 
large or to have the wand too long. A wand five-sixteenths 
inch in diameter and thirteen inches long is about the right 
size for your hand, assuming that you are a boy. The 
wand should not be too light in weight, either, and it is 
better to have it enameled black; it can be a plain stick, but 
it adds greatly to its appearance to have it tipped with 
ivory, or bone, or metal nickel-plated. 

Then again, it is an excellent plan to have two or three 
wands, especially if you are going to do a trick that requires 
a specially made wand. When you intend to do a trick with 

16s 



166 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



a wand that reqiiires preparation or one that is fitted with a 
mechanical device, as for instance the coin wand described 
on Page 98, you should have a dupKcate wand exactly of 
the same size, color, and tips, which is unprepared. This 
latter wand you use first, and incidentally hand to a spec- 
tator to hold for a moment. The idea is to get it into the 
hands of some one in order that he and the others around 
him may know it is unprepared. Then when you switch it 
for the prepared wand, the effect on the audience will be 
the same as if you had passed the latter for examination. 

THE GRAVITY-DEFYING WAND. 

The Effect. This is not intended to be performed as a 
trick in itself, but as a bit of wonder-creating by-play. 

A- THE GRAVITY DEFYING WAND 



While you are using your wand you have occasion to lay it 
on the edge of your table, or chair, or on top of a tumbler, 
but instead of laying it down in the usual manner you 
simply place one end of it on the table or glass, as shown at 
A in Fig. 7 1 . Now instead of falling off, it remains supported 
by its end in the most uncanny gravity-defying way. 







.THE WEIGHTED END 

mmm . : 
B- CROSS-SECTION 



3) 



Fig. 71.— The Gravity Defying Wand. 



THE USE OF AND TRICKS WITH THE WAND 167 



The Secret of the Wand. The bald secret of the gravity- 
defying wand is that it is loaded with lead at one end, or 
better, it has a lead weight in it the diameter of which is a 
trifle less than that of the tube of which the wand is made, 
and its length is a couple of inches. This scheme allows 
you to let the lead weight slide to either end of the tube as 
you wish, and this accounts for its balancing in curious 
positions. A cross-section of the wand is shown at B. 

THE juggler's WAND. 

The Effect. You have heard the expression of making a 
person "swallow his words," well, here is a trick where you 
make a spectator "swallow your wand." In the midst of 
some trick you approach a spectator whose mouth is open 
in amazement at your wonders, and you deliberately proceed 
to place the end of your wand in his mouth, run it down his 
throat and then pull it out again, the "victim" being none 
the worse off for having passed through the ordeal. It is a 
very amusing bit of by-play. 

Preparation. The wand is an ordinary one having ivory 
or bone tips, as shown at A in Fig. 72. On one end you 
place a paper ring that is the exact color of the ivory or bone 
tip, see j5, and just large enough to slide freely on the wand. 
Prepare for the trick by slipping the paper ring over one of 
the tips of the wand. 

Presentation. Taking the end of the wand that has the 
paper ring on it in your right hand, you go among the 
spectators, who must be seated, and selecting the first person 
whose mouth is open you place the lower end of it in it and 
hold it there with your left hand, as at C. 



168 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



Now grip the paper ring between the thumb and forefinger 
of your right hand and then sHde it down on the wand and 
at the same time let the upper end slip up your coat-sleeve. 
To the spectators it will appear exactly as if the wand 
actually went down the young man's throat. Naturally the 

IVORY TIP . IVO^YTlP 



A-The wand — r> 

B- PAPER TIP 




C' MAKING HIM SWALLOW IT 
Fig. 72 —The Juggler's Wand. 

spectator who assisted you will not know that he has swal- 
lowed the wand, neither will he know what has been done 
to make the audience laugh so heartily. 

THE MULTIPLYING WAND. 

The Effect. After you have used your wand for the 
performance of several tricks, explain that for your next 
trick you will need two wands, and ask to borrow one. As 
none is forthcoming, you remember that you have a works 



THE USE OF AND TRICKS WITH THE WAND 169 



where wands are made on the simple principle of division, 
like the amoeba*. Taking your wand in both hands you 
suddenly draw them apart, when you will have a wand in 
each hand as shown at A in Fig. 73. 

Having made two wands grow where there was only one 
before, you ask that some one kindly oblige by saying which 




B- THE REAL WANP 



C- THE PAPER SHELL WAND 
Fig. 73— The Multiplying Wand. 

one of the wands he prefers you to finish the trick with. 
You then take the wand and roll it up in a sheet of paper. 
Placing the opposite ends between your hands you bring 
them together with considerable force when the paper will 
crumple up and the wand has vanished. 

Preparation. The best kind of a wand to do this trick 
with is a black one with ivory or bone tips, as at B, Take 
a piece of glazed black paper about three inches wide and 
as long as your wand; lay the latter on the unglazed side of 

• The lowest form of animal life. 



170 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



the paper and roll this around it until it forms a tube, and 
then paste the edge of it so that it will keep its shape, as at 
C. This paper tube must slide freely on the wand and yet ^ 
not be too lose on it. Now paste a narrow band of white 
paper, as wide as the length of the ivory or bone tips of your 
wand, around the ends of the paper tube, and your second 
wand is ready to be produced. 

Presentation. Having now the paper shell wand slipped 
over your real wand, you perform a trick or two before you 
do the multiplying act. Then, following the routine de- 
scribed in the effect above, you suddenly pull the paper 
shell wand from the real one. Whichever wand the spec- 
tators request you to use, lay your real wand on the table, 
wrap the paper wand in a sheet of paper and crush it in at 
the ends; in the minds of the audience the wand in it has 
vanished. If you are requested to use the real wand, you 
lay it on your table for this purpose; if you are requested to 
use the paper wand, you roll it in the paper, so that in either 
case the wish of the spectator is fulfilled. 

THE OBEDIENT RING. 

The Effect. In effect this trick is very much like the 
obedient baU described on Page ii6, but it is newer, neater, 
and is worked on an entirely different principle. The first 
thing you do is to pass your wand for inspection; then, 
holding it in a vertical position by the lower end, you ask 
that some one be good enough to loan you a ring and to 
place it over the wand. Thus there is no possible chance for 
deception. The ring wiU now move up to the top of your 
wand, or travel down it, and stop the instant the spectators 



THE USE OF AND TRICKS WITH THE WAND 171 



request it to do so. What is the invisible power that moves 
and controls the ring? No one knows ! 

Preparation. A simple way to do this trick is to use a 
piece of fine black silk thread about as long as your wand 
and tie one end of it to the lower button of your waistcoat; 
then put a dab of magician's wax on the other end of the 
thread and stick this to the upper button of your waistcoat. 




A-HOW THE TRICK 
'S WORKED 

Fig. 74.— The Obedient Ring. 

Presentation. When you are ready to do the trick you 
pass the wand for examination, as said in the paragraph 
which recited the effect. The moment the wand is returned 
to you, you press one end of it against the dab of wax on 
your waistcoat button, so that the thread sticks to it; hold 
your wand so that this end is up when the thread hanging 
back of it cannot be seen. Now ask for the ring and have 
it dropped over the wand, when the ring will be outside of 
the thread, as shown at A in Fig. 74. 

The power that causes the ring to move — which no one 



172 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



knows — is, let us suppose, due primarily to yourself, by 
which I mean that when you wish the ring to rise, you 
extend your hand from your body and this tightens the 
thread, which in turn pulls up on the ring; when you want 
the ring to sHp down, you bring your hand nearer to your 
body, when the thread is slackened and the weight of the 
ring causes it to fall; and, finally, when you want the ring 
to stop you keep your hand stationary in which case the 
thread holds it still. 

Of course you can hold your wand by the top after you 
have the ring on it, as well as by the bottom, and by making 
hypnotic motions over and around your wand with your 
other hand while you are doing the trick, the inward and 
outward movements of the wand will not be noticed. When 
you have finished, take off the ring and return it, and this 
will give you ample opportunity to remove the wax from the 
end of your wand. 

A Better Way. The wand in this case should have nickel- 
plated tips, though a wand tipped with ivory or bone may 
be used. You must have a thin metal cap of the same length 
as the tip on your wand, and either nickeled, or enameled to 
look exactly like it, made which will fit over it, as shown at B. 

One end of the black silk thread is passed through a hole 
about the size that a needle would make, which is drilled 
near the closed end of the cap, and the thread is knotted to 
prevent it from pulling out. The other end of the thread is 
tied to the lower button of your waistcoat, as explained above. 
You keep the cap under the edge of your waistcoat, which 
holds it there because of the elastic sewed inside of it, and you 
are now ready for the trick (the power of which no one knows) . 



THE USE OF AND TRICKS WITH THE WAND 173 



On passing out your wand for inspection, it is easy to get 
hold of the cap and to pahn it; as the wand is handed back 
to you, you press the cap over one end of it. Now hold the 
wand by its free end, in a vertical position and with the cap 
end at the top. Then proceed with the trick in the manner 
already explained. 

THE FLOATING WAND 

The Effect. After using your wand in the execution of a 
few tricks you place it across the palm of your hand, which 
is held in an upright position, as at ^ in Fig. 75. Next, you 
place it on the back of your hand, then cross the tips of 
your thumb and forefinger, where in either case it remains 
as though it were magnetized, yet you can instantly remove it. 

Placing it across the palm of your hand again, you go 
among the spectators and let them observe the phenomenon 
at close range; you ask some one to remove the wand from 
your hand and pass it for examination; at the same time you 
have your hand minutely inspected, and then on receiving 
back your wand you place it on the palm of your hand 
where it floats as before. 

Preparation. This extraordinary effect is the result of 
using an artifice for the first part of the manipulations and 
a little muscular pressiure for the close-up work. The 
artifice consists of a bit of elastic about one-fourth of an 
inch wide and four or five inches long. 

One end of this is sewed to the seam at the upper edge of 
the left-hand armhole of your waistcoat and a fine, strong, 
black silk thread is sewed to the other end of it. The thread 
has a loop at its free end and it should be just long enough 



174 



THE BOY MAGICIAN' 



SO that you can slip your thumb into it and yet with enough 
tension on it to draw it up your sleeve out of sight when you 
release it. 

Presentation. Before making your appearance, draw the 
thread down and put your left hand through the loop. 
This will not interfere with your doing a few routine tricks, 
though of course you cannot turn back your shirt-sleeves. 
When you are ready to make the wand float, push one end 



of it through the loop of thread, as at 5, when you can place 
it on your palm, on the back of your hand, on your finger 
tips, in fact anywhere and in any position, just as long as the 
elastic is drawing the thread back and your fingers or hand 
prevents it from being drawn back. 

These manipulations being finished, slip the wand out of 
the loop and let the thread fly up your sleeve. Now spread 
your fingers apart and place the wand across the tips of your 
little finger and thumb, as at C; and by pressing up on it 




A 



6-THEWANO GOES 
THROUGH THE LOOP 
OF THREAD 



Fig. 75.— The Floating Wand. 



THE USE OF AND TRICKS WITH THE WAND 175 



with the other fingers of the same hand the fleshy part of 
them will keep the wand from falling. You can now hold 
your hand with the wand on it in any position and let the 
spectators look at it at close range. 

Then let some one remove the wand and inspect both it 
and your hand. Having satisfied them that there is abso- 
lutely no preparation of either one, you place the wand back 
on your palm again where it will float as before. During all 
of the manipulations, with and without the thread, keep up a 
rhythmic wavy motion with your hand, as this not only 
gives it a better effect but prevents the methods you are 
using from being seen. 



1 

I 

i 

4' 



PART VII. 

VARIOUS AND DIVERS OTHER TRICKS 



CHAPTER XIV. 



TRICKS WITH ARTIFICES AND APPARATUS, 

THE COLOR-CHANGING DIE. 

The Effect. There are two ways of presenting this neat 
little pocket trick. The first is to show a black die, which is 
about three-quarters of an inch square, with white spots on 
it, when it changes into a white die with black spots on it. 
The second is to show a die with red, white, and blue sides 




A-THE BLACK DIE ^r^lr?Mrme 
AND WHITE SHELL CHANCING Die 

Fig. 76.— The Color-Changing Die 

on it and make it change into one having green, yeJow, and 
purple sides on it. 

The Artifice. In both tricks the artifice is exactly the 
same and consists of a thin tin, or brass, shell, having three 
sides and into which the die sets when, of course, three of 
its sides are covered up. In the first presentation, the die 
itself is black with white spots on it and the shell is white 
with black spots on it, as shown at A in Fig. 76. In the 



180 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



second trick, the die has two red, two white, and two blue 
sides to it and the shell has one green, one yellow, and one 
purple side as at B. 

Presentation. The presentation is the same for both of 
the effects described above. You pass the die for inspection 
and then place the shell, which you have concealed in your 
right hand, over it. You now hold it by oppositely disposed 
comers between the thumb and forefinger of your other 
hand, so that three sides of the real die are seen by the spec- 
tators, as shown at C. 

All you need to do now is to roll your right hand over it, 
when it will cause the die with the shell on it to make a half- 
turn, when the three sides of the shell are brought in front 
and to view. Thus the die will, different from the leopard, 
change its spots, or contrary to an African, will change its 
color, according to the effect you have prepared for. When 
you are through with the trick, drop the shell into your hand, 
and pass the die for inspection again, taking this oppor- 
tunity to slip the shell into yoiu: pocket. 

THE RISING PENCIL. 

The Effect. This little trick was originally worked with 
great success as an experiment in animal magnetism, and 
also to show the power of mind over matter. You show an 
ordinary lead-pencil and hand it to a spectator with the 
request that he test it to prove it is not weighted in the end. 
On taking it back, you lay the pencil in the palm of your 
hand. Now, making a few hypnotic passes over the pencil 
it slowly rises, as shown at A in Fig. 77, until it is in a 
vertical position, then following your finger it gradually 



TRICKS WITH ARTIFICES AND APPARATUS 181 



returns to the palm of your hand. You can repeat the 
phenomenon as often as you wish. 

Preparation. Procure two ordinary lead pencils, just 
alike, with rubber tips, cut off the ends so that each one 
will be about four inches long, and then sharpen them. 
Next, bend the point of a small, sharp pin, as shown at B 




C-THE PIN IN THE 
RUBBER END 



Fig. 77— The Rising Pencil 



then cut off the head part of it, leaving the shank three- 
eighths of an inch long, and gripping it with a pair of flat- 
nosed pliers force the blunt end of the pin into the rubber 
tip until the bent end projects only one-sixteenth of an inch 
as at C. Only one pencil is thus prepared. 

Presentation. Have both pencils in the upper left-hand 
pocket of your waistcoat; then go among the spectators and 



182 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



take the prepared pencil from your pocket, hold it with the 
pin-point end down, and ask some one to lift it to prove it 
is not weighted. When a person takes the upper end of the 
pencil between his forefinger and thumb, keep your own 
hand within a couple of inches of it so that should he show 
the slightest tendency to turn the stick over, that is, the 
pin-point end up, you can instantly take it before he does so. 

On his assurance that the stick is not loaded, you take it 
and place the rubber end in the center of your left hand and 
as you do so run the bent pin end just under the outer 
cuticle, or skin, of your palm, as at and with the pin- 
point toward you. Now by slightly closing your hand the 
pencil will lie in a horizontal, that is flat, position and the 
sharp end of it will rest on your finger tips. 

While you are making the alleged hypnotic passes over it, 
slowly and imperceptibly open your hand, when the stick 
will rise because the edge of the rubber forms a fulcrum and 
so makes a lever of the whole pencil. The slight pull of the 
pin (which cannot be seen by the spectators because it is 
under the end of the rubber) caused by opening your hand, 
forces the pencil up. To lower it you need only to close 
your hand a Httle, when it will return to its horizontal 
position. 

After you have performed the trick, piace the pencil in 
your pocket and immediately exchange it for the unpre- 
pared pencil, but instead of handing the latter for examina- 
tion you lay it down carelessly (apparently), but where the 
spectators can easily get hold of it. The result is that you 
really force the unprepared pencil on them, but in such a 
way that no one suspects you have done so. 



TRICKS WITH ARTIFICES AND APPARATUS 183 



THE MAGICAL TUMBLER. 

Here are two styles of prepared tumblers which you can 
use for a number of different tricks. As they are very useful 
pieces of apparatus, you should have them made up, or buy 
them already made, which is the better way. 

THE BOTTOMLESS TUMBLER. 

Preparation. I have described this tumbler in connection 
with the handkerchief trick in Part 5, Chapter 12. It con- 
sists of simply using an ordinary glass tumbler from which 
the bottom has been cut out. 

It is often the better plan to have an ovai hole cut out of 
the bottom than a round one, or a hole a trifle smaller than 
the inside diameter of the bottom. Holes of this character 
permit an egg, or other object, to remain in the tumbler 
without having to hold it in, and yet, by giving the tumbler 
a shake it will easily drop through. 

It is a curious fact, but the great majority of spectators 
never for an instant imagine that an object, especially an 
everyday object like a tumbler, might be prepared in any 
way. And even if such an idea would occur to them, their 
lack of knowledge of the magical art would effectually 
prevent them from guessing how it was prepared. 

Some Effects. Here is one of the many effects that are 
easily and simply obtained by means of a bottomless tumb- 
ler. Hold the tumbler in your left hand with your fingers 
over the lower end. Now place a ball, an egg, or some other 
small object in it, so that those present can see that it is 
actually in the tumbler 



184 



rHE BOY MAGICIAN 



This done, cover it with a handkerchief, your own or a 
borrowed one, then let the object drop into the palm of 
your hand, when you can easily vest it, put it in your pocket, 
or let it go down the well of your table. Tapping the 
tumbler through the handkerchief with your wand, you 
command the ball to go. Whisk ojff the handkerchief and, 
verily, the ball hath done your bidding. You can make it 
appear anywhere you wish. 

THE MIRROR TUMBLER. 

Preparation. The mirror tumbler is made by cutting a 
piece of thin mirror so that it will fit snugly in an upright 
position in the tumbler as shown at A in Fig. 78, thus 

THE MIRROR MIRROR ON 

/ BOTH SIDES 











T 





A- THE MIRROR 6-THE CHAIN INTHE 

TUMBLER MIRROR TUMBLER 

Fig. 78— The Mirror Tumbler. 

dividing it into two compartments. For producing some 
effects, it is enough to have the mirror silvered on one side 
only, while other effects require that it shall have two 
silvered surfaces; this can be had by placing two thin mirrors 
back to back. 

Some Effects. A pretty effect where a single mirror 



TRICKS WITH ARTIFICES AND APPARATUS 185 



partition is used is to fill the tumbler back of it with candy. 
The spectators, of course, looking against the mirror see the 
tumbler as being perfectly empty. Now set the tumbler on 
your table, then borrow a handkerchief and cover it over. 
This done, clip the piece of mirror between your fingers and 
thumb, through the handkerchief, and puU the latter straight 
up bringing the partition with it; the tumbler will then be 
seen to be half -full of candy. You get rid of the mirror by 
dropping it into the weU of your table under cover of the 
handkerchief. 

With a double-mirror timibler you can perform greater 
wonders in a simpler manner. The effects are obtained by 
secretly placing an object in one compartment of the glass, 
then placing a wholly different object in the other compart- 
ment before the eyes of the audience. Now give the glass a 
half-turn, which will bring the object you have secretly 
placed in it to the front and in view of the spectators, and 
the object which they have seen you place in the tumbler 
to the back and out of sight, when the transformation is 
complete. 

By way of illustration you secretly place a small silk flag 
in one compartment, and you set the tumbler on the table 
with it at the back. Now show a red, a white, and a blue 
piece of silk and place these in the compartment facing the 
spectators. Pick up the tumbler and hold it by the bottom 
so that you can give it a hah-tum; next, pass your other 
hand in front of it to cover up the movement of turning it 
around. You then pull out the flag. 

Another very illusive and mystifying effect is produced by 
placing secretly in one compartment a chain of, say, twenty 



186 THE BOY MAGICIAN 

links, and setting it on the table as before. Now have a 
spectator count the separate links you offer him on a salver 
or a plate, the number of which is likewise twenty. 

Returning to your table, you pick up the tumbler and hold 
it by the bottcm, as explained above, and drop each one of 
the separate links into the empty compartment which faces 
the audience. This done, you pass your other hand in front 
of the tumbler, turn it around, then reaching into the com- 
partment containing the chain, which is now in front, you 
pull it slowly out; hand it to the spectator who counted the 
separate links with the request that he make a count of 
those in the chain, which he finds is twenty. This effect 
proves beyond all peradventure of a doubt that it is possible 
for "solids to pass through solids." 

THE FLYING GLASS OF WATER. 

The Effect. This is as fine a trick as has ever been in- 
vented. You show a small glass tumbler and fill it with 
water. Then you throw it into the air and catch it, yet 
the water doesn't spill, and finally you turn the tumbler 
upside down, and still the water remains in it. 

Placing the tumbler on the table you throw a handker- 
chief over it, taking It into the midst of the spectators and 
throwing it into the air, you catch the handkerchief, but the 
glass has disappeared. You can produce the tumbler with 
the water in it from your hip-pocket if you choose to do so. 

Preparation. To manipulate the tumbler of water you 
need only a tumbler, preferably of .small size, and a disk of 
mica,* see A Fig. 79, cut to the exact size of the tcp of it. 

*This you can get at a hardware store where stoves are sold. 



TRICKS WITH ARTIFICES AND APPARATUS 187 



To vanish the tumbler, take two colored cotton handker- 
chiefs which measure about twelve inches on the sides, and 
sew these together around three of the edges; next, you sew 
them fiom the corners to the middle, as shown by the dotted 
hnes at B. Put a wire ring, just the size of the top of the 
tumbler, in the pocket thus formed between the handker- 
chiefs and sew the edges together. If you intend to repro- 
duce the tumbler, you must have a second tumbler with a 
mica disk that just fits on the top of it. 

llANDKERCWiiiir SEV/ED 
lOGETHERHERE 



A-MICA DISK 

Presentation. You know, I suppose, that if you fill a 
glass full of water and place a card over the mouth of it you 
can invert it, that is, turn it upside down, and the water 
will remain in the tumbler. This is due to the pressure cf 
the atmosphere on the card, and you can get the full scien- 
tific explanation of the phenomenon from nearly any first 
book of physics. 

New in order to throw the glass of water into the air, and 
invert it, you place the disk of mica, which is as transparent 




188 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



as glass, over the mouth of the tumbler. This you do secretly 
by having the mica disk palmed, and this is the chief reason 
why you should use a small tumbler. Before throwing the 
tumbler into the air or inverting it make certain that the 
water has wetted the mica all round the edge or it will spill 
out. 

After throwing the tumbler into the air, you deliberately 
turn it upside down, and, carrying it by the bottom, as shown 
at C, you pass among the spectators and they will not be 
able to see the mica disk on the mouth of it. Returning now 
to your table, which must have a black-art well in it, you 
pick up the handkerchief and hold it so that the ring in it 
(it is made double) will fall to the center. 

Throwing the handkerchief over the tumbler, hold the 
ring, through the handkerchief, and also the glass, as shown 
at and let the latter drop into the well in your table. 
You can now go among the spectators, who would never 
believe but that you still have the tumbler under the hand- 
kerchief. Then with a flourish throw the handkerchief into 
the air. Catching it as it comes down, you nip it by a corner 
and give it a vigorous shake, when the spectators see for the 
first time that the tumbler is gone. 

To reproduce the tumbler, fill the second one with water 
and put the second mica disk on it, (all this beforehand and 
secretly, of course). See that the disk is well wetted all 
over, and place the tumbler in your hip-pocket, which should 
be made of such a size and shape as to allow the tumbler to 
fit it so that it will remain in an upright position. When you 
produce it from your pocket, palm off the disk and pour out 
the water to show that it is real. 



TRICKS WITH ARTIFICES AND APPARATUS 189 



THE CHINESE RICE BOWLS. 

The Effect. This is a very astounding effect of Oriental 
origin and was performed with great success in this country 
by Ching Ling Foo. Yet the trick is one of which the cost 
is small and which can easily be performed. You show two 
plain China bowls and have one of them filled with rice by a 




AND MULTIPLIES TO WATER 

E'THE BOWLS INVERTED 
ON THE TRAY 

^IG. 80 —The Chinese Rice Bowisi 

spectator. This done, you next invert the other bowl and 
place it over the one containing the rice and the latter is 
commandevi co increase aixd multiply. 

This it does, so that when the top bowl is removed there 
is twice as much of it in the bowl as there was before, as 
shown at A in Fig. 80. You now smooth off the piled-up 
rice until it is even with the rim of the bowl as it was when 
you began the trick. Once more you place the other bowl 
over it and when you remove the one on top, this time the 



190 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



rice will be found entirely to have vanished and the bowl 
will be filled with water instead, as shown at B. 

Preparation. There is very little preparation necessary 
for the performance of this trick. All you require is two 
ordinary China bowls, preferably with bases on them like 
those shown in the pictures, as this makes it possible to hold 
them with one hand. The top edge of the rim of one of 
them must be ground flat and perfectly smooth; then get a 
piece of mica, or celluloid, large enough to form a disk as large 
as the outside diameter of the bowl and having a projecting 
piece to it, as shown at C. 

The disk of mica must seat perfectly on the ground edge 
of the bowl, or else it will not keep the water in when it is 
inverted. The tray should have three or four little pieces 
of glass, or cork, about one-fourth of an inch in diameter 
and one-eighth inch high, glued to it as shown at D. These 
are necessary to prevent the mica from sticking to the bottom 
of the tray when the bowl rests on it after it is inverted. 

Presentation, Fill one of the bowls with water (secretly) 
and place the disk of mica on it, then invert it* and set it 
on the tray. Likewise invert the unprepared bowl just to 
allay suspicion, as at E. To do the trick, show that the 
bowl is empty, and, holding it right side up, either fill it 
yourself or have a spectator fill Ic with rice; next, lift the 
inverted bowl (the water will remain in it), and since it is 
upside down this is evidence enougL to the spectators that 
it is perfectly empty, and then place it on and over the bowl 
with the rice in it. 

* Read The Flying Class of Water for an explanation as to why the water stay 
in the bowl when it is inverted. 



TRICKS WITH ARTIFICES AND APPARATUS 191 

Taking a good hold on both bowls, you walk to and fro a 
few steps and at the same time keep up a rhythmic motion 
with them, under the cover of which you turn them over so 
that the one with the water in it is on the bottom and the 
one with rice in it is on top. Having made this move, set 
the bowls on the tray again, then take off the top one, when 
the rice will be heaped up on the mica disk, as at A, which, 
consequently, appears to the spectators to be twice the 
amount of what there was in the bowl at the beginning. 

Push the rice off the mica disk with your hand, which 
seems to the audience as if you were levelling off the excess 
amount above the rim of the bowl; next, invert the bowl 
which is empty and place it on top of the one that is full of 
water and has the mica disk on it, and, gripping the smaU 
projecting edge of the mica, which you have kept at the back, 
pull it out and let it lie on your table. Now Hft off the top 
bowl and pour the water from the other bowl into it, when 
you can pass both of them for examination. 



4 



PART vm. 

SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 



There are a large number of tricks that go better with an 
audience when they are explained on the basis of spirit 
manifestations, since nine out of every ten spectators believe 
that "there is something in it." Spirit tricks include all 
manner of strange and curious effects that do not quite seem 
to belong to the realm of magic. Out of many, I have chosen 
a few for you which are easy to do and "very convincing." 



CHAPTER XV. 



TRICKS FOR A SPIRIT SEANCE. 

THE SIBERIAN TRANSPORT CHAIN ESCAPE. 

The Effect. You have a spectator bind a chain tightly 
around your wrists and securely lock it on with a padlock, 
as shown at A in Fig. 8i; the keyhole of the padlock can be 
sealed if desired, yet you escape in a second's time, as shown 
at D, 

How the Chain is Made. The chain is a common dog- 
chain, twenty-four inches long and provided with two rings, 
one at one end and the other about four inches away from 
the first. Any padlock can be used. 

Presentation. To perform the trick, make a running 
loop, by passing the free end of the chain through the ring 
at the other end. Now slip your left hand through the 
loop thus formed so that the end ring comes on the top of 
the large bone in your wrist, that is, at the base of your 
thumb, which is pointing up, as shown at B, The rest of 
the chain is left hanging down over the palm side of your 
wrist. 

Next, quickly press your right wrist against your left 
wrist, holding the palms of your hands together. This done, 
you have a spectator bring the chain under and over your 
right wrist, then down through the second ring which is at 
the bottom of your left wrist. Now tell the spectator to 



196 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



bring the chain back, that is upward, after passing it through 
the ring, and then to lock the end Hnk to another Knk by a 
small padlock, as shown at C, but be sure that it is not 
fastened to either of the rings. Strain the muscles of your 
hands and wrists to emphasize the security af the shackle 
and let the spectators examine it as closely as they like. 




C- CHAIN ON HAN05 
TOP VIEW 

Fig. 81.— The Siberian Transport Chain 



To escape from the chain, give it a sharp blow on your 
knees or on the back of a chair, which simply releases the 
pressure of your right wrist against the left one. If you 
have followed the above instructions carefully, you will 
find that this will give you the necessary slack to permit 
you to withdraw both hands, when you can give the chain 
for inspection again. 

The whole secret of the trkk is to keep your left hand in a 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MATOTFESTATIONS 



197 



vertical position with your thumb up, and to allow the chain 
to hang toward the floor after it is on your wrist. This gives 
you the necessary slack when you place your right wrist 
against the left one. To prove the genuineness of the lock 
and chain, yc \ can put it on a spectator's wrist and he will 
find it quite impossible to escape, provided no slack is left 
between his wrists. When you learn to perform this trick 
with neatness and dispatch it is one of the most mystifying 
chain escapes imaginable 

THE SPIRIT WHISTLE. 

The Effect. This is a most excellent trick with which to 
start off the spirituaHstic part of your program. Because 
of its simplicity, the effect is doubly wonderful. You pass 
for inspection a metal whistle having a piece of ribbon, 
three-eighths, or half-an-inch, wide, and about eight inches 
long, tied to the closed end, as shown at A in Fig. 8 . 

While the whistle is being examined, you explain that 
your spirit control will answer any reasonable question by 
giving one blast on the whistle for "no" and three blasts on 
the whistle for "yes", which is in accordance with the habits 
of spirits in general. Where a number is concerned, it will 
respond by blowing as many times as there are digits in it 
up to ten. If the number is over ten, then each numeral 
will be blown separately; thus if the number is 23, it will blow 
twicej and after a short pause, three times, so in this respect 
it is not very different from a fire department. 

On receiving the whistle back, you hold the free end of 
the ribbon, as shown at B, Then you begin to ask questions 
and you increase the fun by letting the spectators ask ques- 



198 



rHE BOY MAGICIAJS 



tions, and all the while you are doing so you keep moving , 
around among them. The most wonderful part of it all is 
that you can hand the whistle for inspection at any moment. 

Preparation. For this trick you need two whistles, one 
of which is tied to a ribbon as explained above. To the 
other whistle, which must be exactly like the first, so that 




A-THE WHISTLE- POSITION 
ON THE RIBBON 

Fig. 82.— The Spirit Whistle.^ 

the tones will be identical, you fasten a rubber tube about 
one fourth of an inch in diameter and eighteen inches long 
and to the other end of the tube you attach a rubber bulb, 
all of which is shown at C; this is called a mother-in-law. 
This bulb you put in the pit of your right arm, run the tube 
down under your waistcoat and let the whistle hand down 
inside the leg of your trousers. 

Presentation. When you do the trick, clip the free end 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 



199 



of the ribbon with your fingers and hold it at a height so 
that the whistle will hang about even with the one in your 
trouser's leg. When you want it to answer a question, 
slightly press your arm against your body, when it will 
squeeze the bulb; this will force a stream of air through the 
whistle and make it blow. The fact that the whistles sound 
aUke and are close to each other makes it seem exactly as if 
it were the visible one that is blowing. Thus it is we have 
a beautiful demonstration of spirit power in the field of 
sound. 

SPIRIT SLATE-WRITING TEST. 

First Effect. You show two small slates and wash both 
of them on both sides, place and tie them together and ask 
a spectator to hold them over his head. After the lapse of 
a few rhonents, to give the spirits a chance to write, you untie 
them when a message will be found on the slates. 

Preparation for the First Effect. Get a pair of small 
school slates, with bare frames and a sheet of slate-board. 
This is cardboard painted on both sides with silicate, 
which has the same appearance as the slates. Cut the slate 
board so that it will just fit into the frame of one of the slates 
and this is called d^flap. Now write whatever message you 
wish to have appear on one of the slates and lay the flap on 
top of it and you are ready to do the trick. Fig. 83 shows 
the slate with the flap. 

Presentation of the First Effect. You pick up the slate 
with the flap on it (the writing is under the latter) and hold- 
ing it with the flap side toward the spectators you wash it 
with a slightly dampened sponge; next, you turn the slate 



200 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



over so that the flap is at the back and wash the other side 
of it, being careful to hold the slate so that the flap will not 
fall out. Lay it down with the flap side up and wash the 
other slate on both sides. 

This done, place the slates together with the slate having 
the flap in it on top, so that the flap will be between them 
and so that it will drop from the top slate to the bottom 
one. Be sure to keep them in this position, and to do so 
with certainty you can make a mark on one of the frames 
of the slate in order to know which slate the writing is on. 




A- THE SLATES WITH THE FLAP "^^"^^ 
Fig. 83 —The Spirit Slates 

Having washed the slates, tie them together and give them 
to a spectator to hold, then when you untie them be sure to 
hold them with the flap on the bottom slate. You can now 
lift ofl the top slate and show the message you have pre- 
viously written on it. 

Second Effect. You wash the slates on both sides as 
before, but in this case you let the spectator untie the slates. 
This is far more convincing than where you untie them your- 
seK. 

Preparation for the Second Effect. The slates with the 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 201 



silicate flap are used just as before, but in this case you paste 
a sheet of newspaper on one side of the flap. You then lay 
a newspaper on top of the table where you intend laying the 
slates after you have washed them. 

Presentation of the Second Effect. This is a very much 
better way to do the trick, since after you have placed the 
slates together the flap is left behind on the table with the 
newspaper-covered side up, which makes it hard to detect 
it from the newspaper on top of the table, and further, you 
can let the spectator untie the slates and examine them. 

Begin by washing the flap on the slate, as in the first effect 
then wash the other side and lay it on the table with the 
flap side down; wash the other slate, pick the first one up 
from the table, which will leave the flap on it with the 
newspaper-side on top, and invisible under the close observa- 
tion of a spectator. 

On picking up the slate with the message on it, be careful 
to hold it so that the writing is at the back, and then place 
it on top of the other one and tie them together. You can 
then let a spectator untie them. 

Third Effect — The Great Dictionary Test. The new 
feature of this effect lies in using the above slate trick in 
combination with a dictionary. You wash the slates, place 
aDd tie them together, and hand them to a spectator to hold, 
as previously described. 

Now hand another spectator a playing card and ask him 
to insert it between the leaves of a little dictionary which 
you hold closed in your hands. He does so, and you announce 
that you will open the book at the card and read the number 
of the left-hand page, the first word in the first column on 



202 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



that page, and the definition of it, all of which you will ask 
the spirits to write down on one of the slates. 

Thereupon you open the dictionary at the place where 
the card is inserted and read aloud the page, number, etc., 
and show it to some of the spectators for verification; you 
then ask the person who is holding the slates to untie them, 
when the identical number, word, and definition will be found 
written on it. 

Preparation for the Third Effect. The slates and flap 
are just the same as for the second effect. The Httle dic- 
tionary is unprepared, but you use two playing cards the 
faces of which are the same, say, for instance, the Trey of 
Diamonds. 

Now, before the performance select a word that appears 
on a page at about the middle of the book, as at and let 
us say that the number of the page is ii6, the first word in 
the first column is lotion and that the definition of it is A 
medicated fluid for outward application. All of this you write 
on one of the slates. In order to make the book open 
easily at this particular page, bend the covers back together; 
then place one of the playing cards between the pages ii6 
and 117 and close the book. You are ready now to do the 
trick. 

Presentation of the Third Effect. For this effect you 
work the slates as described for the second effect, that is, 
by having one side of the flap covered with a sheet of news- 
paper and a newspaper laid on the table. The great dic- 
tionary test (which you will say is not so great when you 
know how it is done) is presented in this manner: 

Holding the closed dictionary in your right hand and the 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 203 



duplicate Trey of Diamonds in your left, you hand the card 
to a spectator with the request that he insert the card any- 
where he chooses in the dictionary. As soon as he does so, 
push the card well in between the leaves of the book out of 
sight and then open it at your card, when you read the 
number of the page, the first word in the first column, and 
the definition. 

It never occurs to the spectator who has assisted you, or 
to the audience, that you have opened the book at a place 
other than where he inserted it, and as you open the book 
at the same kind of a card that he inserted in it the illusion 
is complete. Then you let the spectator who is holding the 
slates untie them, and the page number, word, and defini- 
tion that you have just read will be found written on one of 
them. 

THE FAMOUS SPIRIT THUMB TIE. 

The Effect. Coming forward with a piece of musHn tape 
about half an inch wide and a foot long, you pass it for 
examination. This done, you ask a spectator to tie your 
thumbs together as tightly as possible. Next, you have 
another spectator grip your wand at each end and hold it 
in a vertical position, as shown at A in Fig. 84. You then 
pass it easily through your tied thumbs as at B, 

For your next test, your assistant passes out three or four 
wooden rings, each about two feet in diameter. After they 
have been carefully inspected, he stands facing you at a 
distance of about six or eight feet and then throws them one 
at a time at your hands, which you have stretched out in 
front of you at arm's length. These pass through your 



204 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



hands and on to your arms, just as though they were made 
of spirit stuff rather than mortal material. 

Preparation. This remarkable effect, which has the 
genuine hall-mark of the passing of solids through solids, is 
secured by a simple device in the shape of a thin sheet-metal 
spiral over your tumb and it should be painted flesh-color. 




THROUGH YOUR THUMBS THE THUIMB5 

Fig. 84.— The Spirit Thumb Tie. 

When you are ready do the trick, put it on your left thumb 
between the tip and the first joint of it as at D and E, 

Presentation. Hand the tape to a spectator and explain 
that as it is made of muslin it cannot be stretched, and, 
further, that a harder knot can be tied in it. You now cross 
your thumbs, as shown at A and B and ask the spectator to 
tie them together with the tape as tightly as possible. After 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 205 

the tape is tied, you can show the fronts and backs of your 
thumbs as the tape covers up the spiral. 

You will find it an easy matter now to withdraw the 
thumb that the metal spiral is on as weU as to replace it, and 
with practice you can do this so quickly, especially if you 
keep your hands in motion at the same time, as absolutely 
to be indetectable by the audience. 

When you pass the wand through your hands, move the 
latter up and down parallel with and close to it; slip your 
thumb out, let the wand go between them, and with another 
vertical motion or two sHp your thumb back again. In the 
case of the hoops, they should be thrown in such a way as 
to make them reach your thumbs in a vertical position. 
This makes it easy for you to pass one hand outside of the 
rim and the other inside the rim just as it reaches your 
thumbs. The thumb-tie trick is easy and wonderfully 
effective, but to get it down to perfection you will have to 
practise it diligently 

THE SPIRIT RAPPING WAND. 

The three following tricks, namely, the spirit rapping wand, 
the spirit talking hand, and the spirit skull always afford an 
immense amount of mystification and an unlimited supply 
of amusement. 

The Spirit Wand Effect. The wand, which you have 
been using throughout your performance, is laid on a tam- 
bourine and both are passed to the spectators for inspection. 
On receiving them back, you lay the tambourine on the 
table with your wand in it. It will now rap out answers to 



206 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



any questions which you or the spectators may ask it. Yet 
at any instant you can pass it for examination. 

Preparation. The secret of the rapping wand is the same 
as that of numerous other good tricks, that is to say, a fine, 
black, silk thread, and this is about as near to spirit aid as 
most spirituaHstic tricks ever get. 

On each end of your table have a heavy piece of apparatus 
of some kind or you can use a couple of heavy candlesticks. 




A- THE SPIRIT RAPPING WAND B- THREAD ACROSS THE STAGE 
Fig. 85.— The Spirit Rapping Wand. 

To one of the pieces of apparatus, or candlesticks, tie one 
end of the silk thread and run it over to and through an eye 
or hook of the piece of apparatus or candlestick, as shown in 
Fig. 85. From this lead the thread back to a screen, or the 
wings if you are working on a stage, where your assistant is 
concealed and holds the free end of the thread. 

Presentation. Now let the thread between the pieces of 
apparatus, or candlesticks, sag in the middle until it lies on 
the table, as is also shown in the picture. After the wand 
and tambourine have been examined and returned to you, 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 207 



place the latter with the wand in it on the table so that it is 
directly over the thread. Your assistant now carefully 
pulls on the thread until it touches the wand, and every time 
he gives a httle jerk on the thread thereafter, the wand is 
raised up, and in falling on the edge of the tambourine it 
makes a sharp rap. 

THE SPIRIT TALKING HAND. 

The Effect. The hand, which is made of wax, is modeled 
after the extremity of a human being and appears very like 
that of a cadaver, rather than lifelike. It has a cuff attached 
to it, but it is without preparation of any kind. You pass it 
to the spectators for inspection and to prove that there are 
no mechanical devices used you place the backs of two chairs 
toward each other, a foot or so apart, and lay a pane of glass 
across them. 

On receiving back the hand you lay it on the sheet of glass, 
when it will rap out answers to questions, rap out numbers, 
etc., just as the spirit wand does. You can pick up the 
hand at any moment and pass it for examination, yet the 
instant you lay it on the glass it becomes talkative in its own 
pecuHar way. 

Preparation. As I have said in describing the effect of 
the talking hand, (and I will not withdraw my afi&davit) it is 
not prepared in any way. It is, however, so made that 
when it rests on the glass the ball of the thumb and side of 
the hand form a fulcrum, and in this way the whole hand 
becomes a lever, see A in Fig. 86. That is to say, if the fore 
part of the hand is raised the back part of it will tilt down, 
and vice versa. 



208 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



The real secret of the talking hand is not a case of spirits 
at all, but our old tried and valued friend — the fine, strong, 
black silk thread. One end of the thread is secured to a 
screw-eye screwed into the back of the wing of the stage at 
a height of about six feet; thence it is brought over and across 
the stage to a second screw-eye in the oposite wing at the 
same height, see B, through which it passes, the free end of 
it being held by your assistant. The thread is allowed to 
sag in the middle until it is just above the height of the glass. 




Fig. 86.— The Spirit Talking Hand. 

Presentation. Now, after you have received the hand 
back from the spectators, you return to the stage and lay it 
on the glass with the wrist part of it resting on the thread. 
When you want the hand to rap out an answer, yes or no^ 
to a question, or to rap out a number, your assistant pulls 
on the thread and it takes up the sag; this pulls the front 
part of it down when the fingers come in contact with the 
glass sharply, and this produces a very decided rap. 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 209 



THE SPIRIT TALKING SKULL. 

The Effect. The spirit skuU is much more effectual than 
either the spirit wand or spirit hand. Though each one of 
us in the quick carries a skull around with him all the time, 
yet to many people, in fact to most people, there is a direct 
mental association of a skull with the grave, and of the 
grave with the spirit world. The spirit skull, therefore, 
produces a psychological effect all out of proportion to the 
actual value of the results obtained from it as a mere trick. 




B- THE 5K(JLt_ RCA0YT0"TALK' 

Fig. 87.— The Spirit Talking Skull. 



The skuU, which has its lower jaw pivoted, to the upper 
jaw, is usually made of papier mache and is very deathHke 
and grisly-looking, as you will see from Fig. 87. It is 
without preparation of any kind, and on passing it for 
inspection you set the chairs back to back as at B, and place 
a sheet of glass on them, as in the preceding trick of the 
talking hand. On placing the skull on the glass, the lower 
jaw will rap out the answers to questions and rap out num- 
bers, as previously explained. 

If you can force a card, as explained in Part 7, Chapter j, 
the skull will rap out the suit and value of it. But the 
greatest merriment may be had by asking it how long it will 



210 



THE BOY MAGICIAx 



be until a lady or gentleman spectator will be married, the 
number of children he or she will have, and fortune-telling 
questions in general. 

The skull will rap out the answers with neatness and 
dispatch, and, though too much credence should not be 
placed in the answers given, they will be far more satisfac- 
tory than those obtained through the medium of a ouija 
board. 

Preparation. The same thread arrangement is used as 
described above in connection with the spirit hand. When 
you set the skull down on the glass, you do so with the lower 
jaw resting on the thread. When your assistant pulls on 
it, the jaw is raised and by quickly releasing the tension on 
the thread the jaw drops to the glass and makes a decided 
rap. 

Presentation. The same presentation is used as for the 
spirit hand. In working the spirit skull, or any other 
device where spirits are supposed to transmit intelligence 
by rapping, always remember that according to the spiri- 
tualistic code yes is indicated by three raps and no by one 
rap. You can explain that if a question requires an answer 
that the control spirit does not know, or if much thinking is 
needed or research is involved on its part, it will rap twice. 

THE SPIRIT TABLE SEANCE. 

The Effect. You set before the spectators a little table 
without preparation of any kind, and on it you lay a couple 
of small hand-bells, one or more tambourines, and a stringed 
instrument, such as a ukulele or a banjo. These prelimina- 
ries arranged, you begin by making a little talk on spirits 



SPIRIT TRICKS AND MANIFESTATIONS 211 



and manifestations and seances; you say that while spirits 
prefer the dark, they can work in the light just as well, the 
only condition necessary for them to do so is to prevent them 
from being seen by any one except the medium. 

Then you hold up a square of cloth, about as long as the 
table, directly in front of it, when instantly spirit manifesta- 
tions on the physical plane take place. 

Instantly the tambourines beat and jingle, the bells ring 
and jangle, and all of them fly through the air in all direc- 
tions so that even you yourself will have to be careful not 




Fig. 88.— The Spirit Seance in the Light. 



to ge struck by them; the banjo, or guitar, is strummed, and 
there is every evidence that some mighty unseen force is at 
work. See A in Fig. 88. 

At any moment, even while the bells and tambourines are 
flying about, you can remove the cloth that screens the table; 
the instant you do so, however, all manifestations cease and 
the instruments fall inert to the floor. On screening the 



212 



THE BOY MAGICIAN 



table with the cloth again, the manifestations take place as 
before. This is a wonderful finale for an anti-spiritualistic act. 

Preparation. The table and instruments are unprepared 
but the cloth is double and at one side between them is 
sewed a lazy-tongs, as at B, Secured to pne end of the 
lazy-tongs, but outside of the cloth, are four false fingers. 
This arrangement permits you to hold the cloth up in front 
of the table with your right hand alone and gives you the 
free use of your left hand to manipulate the instruments, 
yet the spectators do not suspect this, as the four false 
fingers appear to them to be those of your left hand. 

Presentation. The lazy-tongs are folded up and the 
cloth is laid over the edge of the table so that the false 
fingers are concealed at the back. When you are ready to 
do the trick you call attention to the table and the instru- 
ments on it. Then take up the cloth with your left hand 
with your fingers over the false fingers, when these will be 
hidden and the cloth will hang down naturally. 

Grip the other corner of the cloth with your right hand 
and pull it out, which will extend the lazy-tongs; you can now 
let go of the corner with your left hand, when you will be 
holding it up by your right hand alone. This leaves your 
left hand free, as explained above, and it is with this that 
you provide the ^ ^mighty unseen force" which manipulates 
the bells, tambourines, etc. 

This is a highly mystifying act with which to say "Good 
Night" to your audience. 



INDEX 



Adam and the Egg-Bag Trick, 135 
Aerial Mint, the, 107 
Aerial Treasury, 97, 100, 107 
Air, Catching Money from the, 107 
Alexander Hermann's Egg Trick, 133 
Animal Magnetism, 180 
Apparatus, Ball Tricks with, 113 
Apparatus, Coin Tricks with, 87 
Apparatus, Egg Tricks with, 131 
Apparatus, Tricks with Artifices and, 
179 

Appearing Ball, 122 
Appearing Card on the Coin, 81 
Appearing Coin, 78 
Appearmg Coin Wand, 97 
Armpit, Handkerchief Production from, 
143 

Artifice for Obedient Orange, 118 
Artifices and Apparatus, Tricks with 
179 

Back Palm for Coins, 104 
Balancing Coin, 78 
Ball and Vase, Magic, 113 
BaU, Appearing, 122 
Ball, Disappearing, 122 
Ball, Fade- Away, 121 
Ball Handkerchief Vanisher, Rubber, 
146 

Ball, Multiplying Billiard, 126 
Ball, New Obedient, 119 
Ball of Yam, Coin in, 89 
Ball of Yam, Mystic, 90 
Ball, Original Obedient, 116 
Ball Production, Latest Billiard, 126 
Ball Tricks, Latest, 121 
Ball Tricks, Kinds of, 112 



Ball Tricks with Apparatus, 113 
Balls, Cnameleon Billiard, 123 
Balls, Color-Changing Billiard, 123 
Balls, One to Four Billiard, 126 
Bandana Handkerchief, 153 
Bautier de Kolta, 147 
Bautier Pull Handkerchief Vanisher, 147 
Big Injim Chief Control, 94 
Billiard Ball Production, Latest, 126 
BUliard Balls, Chameleon, 123 
Billiard Balls, Color-Changing, 123 
Billiard Balls, Multiplying, 126 
BilHard Balls, One to Four, 126 
Bottomless Tumbler, 183 
Bowls, Chinese Rice, 189 

Carl Hermann's Egg Trick, 133 
Cartridge Paper, 156 
Catching Money from the Air, 107 
Celluloid Eggs, 132 

Chain Escape, Siberian Transport, 195 
Chain Restored, 185 
Chameleon Billiard Balls, 123 
Changing Coin, 78 
Changing Die, Color-, 179 
Changing a Handkerchief into an Egg, 
131 

Changing Handkerchiefs, Color-, 156 
Changing Handkerchiefs to Flag, 185 
China Silk Handkerchiefs, 143 
Chinese Coin Trick, 84 
Chinese Rice Bowls, 189 
Ching Ling Foo, 189 
Classified, BaU Tricks, 112 
Classified, Coin Tricks, 76 
Clever Egg Tricks, 131 
Code, Spirit, 197 



214 



INDEX 



Coin, Appearing, 78 

Coin, Appearing Card on the, 81 

Coin, Balancing, 78 

Coin in Ball of Yam, 89 

Coin Box, Disappearing, 88 

Coin, Changing, 78 

Coin, Disappearing, 87 

Coin, How to Pahn, 100 

Coin, Illusive, 78 

Coin, Magnetized, 77 

Coin, Middle-Finger Palm for, 102 

Coin, Multiplying, 78, 80 

Coin Plate, Multiplying, 95 

Coin Rattie Box, 87 

Coin, Shell, 79 

Coin, Sleights with, 100 

Coin, Straight Palm for, 100 

Coin Trick, Chinese, 84 

Coin, Third-Finger Palm for, loi 

Coin, Thumb Palm for, 102 

Coin, Two-Fu)ger Palm for, 102 

Coin, Travelling, 92 

Coin Tricks Classified, 76 

Coin Tricks, Latest, 75 

Coin Tricks with Apparatus, 87 

Coin, Vanishing, 83, 91 

Coin Wand, Appearing, 97 

Coin, The Wand Pahn for, 102, 109 

Coin, Wireless, 81 

Coins, Continuous Back Palm for, 104 

Coins, Continuous Front Palm for, 104 

Coins, Palming, 100 

Coins, Parlor Tricks With, 77 

Coins, Production of, 108 

Corns, Shell, 79 

Coins, Spirit Rapping, 94 

Colonel Stodare's Egg Tricks, 133 

Color-Changing Billiard Balls, 123 

Color-Changing Die, 179 

Color-Changing Handkerchiefs, 156 

Color Phantom Handkerchiefs, 151 



Continuous Back Pahn for Coins, 104 
Continuous Front Palm for Coins, 104 
Controls, Spirit, 94 
Cord Pull Vanisher, Elastic, 148 
Cornucopia, How to Make a Paper, 153 

De Kolta, Bautier, 147 
Dictionary Test, Spirit, 201 
Die, Color-Changing, 179 
Disappearing Ball, 122 
Disappearing Coin, 78, 87 
Disappearing Coin Box, 88 
Divers Other Tricks, 179 
Double Mirror Tumbler, 185 
Dream, the Miser's, 108 

Egg, How to Make a Hollow, 131 * 
Egg-Bag, How to Make the Latest, 137 
Egg-Bag, How to Make a Simple, 136 
Egg-Bag Trick, Latest, 137 
Egg-Bag Trick, Recent, 135 
Egg, Changing a Handkerchief into an 
131 

Egg Production, Latest, 139 
Egg Trick, Alexander Herrmann's, 133 
Egg Trick, Carl Hermann's, 133 
Egg Tricks, Clever, 131 
Egg Trick, Colonel Stodare's, 133 
Egg Tricks With Apparatus, 131 
Egg, Vanishing, 133 
Eggs, Celluloid, 132 
Eggs, Hollow, 132 
Eggs, Rubber, 138 
Eggs, Wooden, 132 
Elastic Cord Pull Vanisher, 148 
Enchanted Handkerchiefs, 151 
Erlenmeyer Flask, 153 
Extra Finger Handkerchief Production, 
145^ 

Experiments with a Mirror Tumbler, 
184 



INDEX 



215 



Experiments with the Wand, 165 

Fade-Away Ball, 121 
Famous Spirit Thumb Tie, 203 
Finger Handkerchief Production, Extra, 
145 

Finger Shell Handkerchief Production, 
145 

Flag, Changing Handkerchiefs to, 185 

Floating Wand, 173 

Flying Glass of Water, 186 

French Drop, the, 105 

Front Palm for Coins, Continuous, 104 

Glass of Water, Flying, 186 
Glass of Water, Inverting a, 186 
Glass of Water in the Air, Throwing, 186 
Glass of Water, Production of, 188 
Glass of Water, Vanishing a, 186 
Gravity Defying Wand, 166 

Handkerchief into an Egg, Changing, 
131 

Handkerchief Pedestals, 160 
Handkerchief, Phantom, 15Q 
Handkerchief Production from Armpit, 
143 

Handkerchief Production, Extra Finger, 
145 

Handkerchief Production, Finger Shell, 
145 

Handkerchief Production from a Match- 

Box, 143 
Handkerchief Productions, 143 
Handkerchief Tricks New and Novel, 

150 

Handkerchief Tricks, Up-to-Date, 141 
Handkerchief Vanisher, Bautier Pull, 
147 

Handkerchief Vanisher, Rubber Ball, 
146 

Handkerchief Vanishments, 143 



Handkerchief Vanisher, Wire Loop, 147 
Handkerchief with Wand, Vanishing, 
146 

Hand, Spirit Talking, 207 
Heathen Chinese Trick, 85 
Herrmann, Alexander, 133 
Herrmann, Carl, 133 
Hollow Eggs, 132 
How to Make a Hollow Egg, 131 
How to Pahn a Coin, 100 
Handkerchief, Bandana, 153 
Handkerchiefs, Color-Changing, 156 
Handkerchiefs, China Silk, 143 
Handkerchiefs, Enchanted, 151 
Handkerchiefs to Flag, Changing, 185 
Handkerchiefs, Penetrating, 159 

Illusive Coin, 78 

Inverting a Glass of Water, 186 

Juggler's Wand, 167 
Kinds of Ball Tricks, II2 

Latest Ball Tricks, I2I 

Latest Billiard Ball Production, 126 

Latest Coin Tricks, 75 
Latest Egg-Bag Trick, 137 
Latest Egg Production, 139 
Lazy Tongs, 212 

Loop Handkerchief Vanisher, Wire, 147 

Magical Tumblers, 183 
Magic Ball and Vase, 1 13 
Magnetism, Animal, 180 
Magnetic Pencil, 180 
Magnetic Passes, 93 
Magnetized Coin, 77 
Manifestations, Spirit, 193 
Match-box, Handkerchief Production 

from a, 143 
Methods of Producing Handkerchiefs, 

143 



216 



INDEX 



Methods of Vanishing Handkerchiefs, 

146 
Mica, 186 

Middle-Finger Pahn for Coin, 102 
Mind over Matter, Power of, 180 
Mint, Aerial, The, 107 
Mirror Tumbler, 184 
Miscellaneous Tricks, 179 
Miser's Dream, The, 108 
Money from the Air, Catching, 107 
Mother-in-Law, Spirit, 198 
Multipljdng Billiard Ball, 126 
Multipl3ang Coin, 80 
Multiplying Coin Plate, 95 
Multiplying Wand, 168 
Mystic Ball of Yarn, 90 

New Handkerchief Tricks, 150 
New Obedient Ball, 119 
Novel Handkerchief Tricks, 150 

Obedient Ball, New, 119 
Obedient Ball, Original, 116 
Obedient Orange, 118 
Obedient Ring, 170 
One to Four Billiard Balls, 126 
Orange, Obedient, 118 
Original Obedient Ball, 116 

Palm a Coin, How to, 100 
Palming Coins, 100 
Pahn for Coin, Continuous Back, 104 
Palm for Coin, Continuous Front, 104 
Palm for Coin, Middle-Finger, I02 
Palm for Coin, Straight, 100 
Palm for Coin, Third-Finger, loi 
Palm for Coin, Two-Finger, 102 
Palm for Coin, Wand, 102 
Palm, The Wand, 109 
Parlor Tricks with Coins, 77 
Pahn, Thumb, for Coin, 102 



Paper, Cartridge, 156 
Paper Cornucopia, How to Make, 153 
Papier Mache, 209 
Passing of Solids Through Solids, 204 
Passing Wand Through Thumbs, 204 
Pedestals, Handkerchiefs, 160 
Pencil, Rising, 180 
Penetrating Handkerchiefs, 159 
Phantom Handkerchief, 150 
Plate, Multiplying Coin, 95 
Power of Mind over Matter, 180 
Production, Extra Finger Handkerchief, 
145 

Production from Armpit, Handkerchief, 
143 

Production, Finger Shell Handkerchief, 
145 

Production of Coins, 108 
Production of Glass of Water, 186 
Production from a Match-box, Hand- 
kerchief, 143 
Productions, Handkerchief, 143 
Pull Handkerchief Vanisher, Bautier, 
47 

Pull Vanisher, Elastic Cord, 148 

Rapping Coins, Spirit, 94 ( 

Rapping Wand, Spirit, 205 

Rattle Box, Coin, 87 

Recent Egg-Bag Trick, 135 ' 

Restored Chain, 185 

Rice Bowls, Chinese, 189 

Ring, Obedient, 170 

Rising Pencil, 180 

Rubber Ball Handkerchief Vanisher, 146 
Rubber Eggs, 138 

Stance, Spirit Table, 210 
Seance in the Light, Spirit, 211 
Seance, Tricks for a, 195 
Shell Com, 79, 83 

Siberian Transport Chain Escape, 19s 



INDEX 



217 



Silk Handkerchiefs, China, 143 
Single Mirror Tumbler, 184 
Skull, Spirit Talking, 209 
Slate, Writing, Spirit, 199 
Sleights With Coins, 100 
Spirit Code, 197 
Spirit Controls, 94 
Spirit Dictionary Test, 201 
Spirit Manifestations, 193 
Spirit Mother-in-Law, 198 
Spirit Rapping Coins, 94 
Spirit Rapping Wand, 205 
Spirit Seance in the Light,2ll 
Spirit Table Seance, 210 
Spirit Talking Hand, 207 
Spirit Talking Skull 
Spirit Thumb Tie, Famous, 20^ 
Spirit Tricks, 193 
Spirit Tricks, Seance for, 195 
Spirit Slates, 199 
Spirit Slate Writing, 200 
Spirit Whistle, 197 
Stodare, Colonel, 133 
Straight Pahn for Coin, 100 
Swallowing Wand, 167 

Table Seance, Spirit, 210 
Talking Hand, Spirit, 207 
Talking Skull, Spirit, 209 
Test, Spirit Dictionary, 201 
Third-Finger Palm for Coin, loi 
Throwing Glass of Water in the Air, 
186 

Thumb Palm for Coin, 102 
Thumb Tie, Famous Spirit, 203 
Tie, Famous Spirit Thumb, 203 
Ting-a-Ling Egg Trick, 133 
Tomique, The, 105 
Traveling Coin, 92 
Treasury, Aerial, 97, 100, T07 
Tricks, Apparatus for Ball, 113 



Trick, Chinese Coin, 84 

Trick, Heathen Chinee, 85 

Tricks for a Spirit Seance, 195 

Tricks, Kinds of Ball, 112 

Tricks with Apparatus, Coin, 87 

Tricks with Artifices and Apparatus, 179 

Tricks with Balls, Best, iii 

Tricks with a Mirror Timibler, 184 

Tricks with the Wand, 165 

Transport Chain Escape, Siberian, 195 

Tumbler, Bottomless, 183 

Tumbler, Magical, 183 

Tumbler, Mirror, 184 

Two-finger Palm for Coin, 102 

Up-to-Date Handkerchief Tricks, 143 
Using the Wand, 165 

Vanishing Coin, 83, 91 
Vanishing Egg, 133 
Vanishing Glass of Water, 186 
Vanishing Handkerchief with Wand, 
146 

Vanisher, Bautier Pull, Handkerchief, 
147 

Vanisher, Elastic Cord Pull, 148 
Vanisher, Rubber Ball Handkerchief, 
146 

Vanisher, Wire Loop Handkerchief, 147 
Vanishments, Handkerchief, 143 
Various Other Tricks, 177 
Vase, Magic Ball and, 113 

Water, Flying Glass of, 186 
Whistle, Spirit, 197 
Wireless Coin, 81 

Wire Loop Handkerchief Vanisher, 147 

Writing, Spirit Slate, 199 

Wooden Eggs, 132 

Wand, Appearing Coin, 98 _ 

Wand, Experiments with the, 165 



218 



INDEX 



Wand, Floating, 173 
Wand, Gravity Defying, 166 
Wand, Juggler's, 167 
Wand, Multiplying, 168 
Wand Palm, 109 
Wand Palm for Coin, 102 
Wand, Right Size for a, 165 
Wand, Spirit Rapping, 205 



Wand, Swallowing, 167 
Wand Through Thumbs, Passing, 203 
Wand, Tricks with the, 165 
Wand, Use of the, 165 
Wand, Vanishing Handkerchief with, 
146 

Yam, Coin in Ball of, 89 
Yarn, Mystic Bail of, 90 



THE BOY ELECTRICIAN 

Practical Plans for Electrical Toys and Apparatus, with an 
Explanation of the Principles of Every-Day Electricity 

By ALFRED P. MORGAN 

Author of '^^Wirdsss Telegraphy Construction for Amateurs''^ and 
^* Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony^'' TfiO iilustrations 

and working drawings by the author 



THIS is the age of electricity. The ifxost 
fascinating of all books for a boy must, 
therefore, be one dealing with the mystery of 
this ancient force and modern wonder. The 
best qualified of experts to instruct boys has 
in a book far superior to any other of its kind 
told not only how to MAKE all kinds of 
motors, telegraphs, telephones, batteries, 
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"Of all books recently published on practical electricity for the youth, 
ful electricians, it is doubtfu)" if there is even one among- them that is more 
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•♦Any boy who studies this book, and applies himself to the making and 
operating of the simple apparatus therein depicted, wili be usefully and happily 
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"A book to delight the hearts of ten thousand — perhaps fifty thousand—. 
American boys who are interested in wireless telegraphy and that oort of things 
Any boy who has even a slight interest in things eiectrical, will kindle with 
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Por sale by all bookseilers or iseat postpaid oa receipt of 
price by the pubiisbers 

LOTHROP. LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 




The Book of Athletics 



Edited by PAUL WITHINGTON 

With many reproductions of photographs, and with diagrams 



NEARLY thirty college stars and 
champions, men like Dr. Kraen- 
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White, "Eddie" Hart, Ralph Craig, 
"Hurry Up" Yost, Jay Camp, Horner, 
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Williams, " Eddie " Mahan, and many 
more tell the best there is to tell about 
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Every important phase of sport in school and college is discussed 
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Outdoor Life 

** That Mr. Withington's book will be popular we do not doubt. 
For it contains a series of expert treatises on all important branches 
of outdoor sports. A very readable, practical, well-illustrated book." 

Boston Herald. 



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price by the publlsbera 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 




THE HANDY BOY 

A Modern Handy Book of Practical and Profitable Pastimes 

By A. NEELY HALL 

Author of «*The Boy Craftsman" and 
"Handicraft for Handy Boys" 

With nearly 600 illustrations and working drawings by 
the Author and Norman P. Hall 8vo Cloth 



A HANDY boy becomes a handy man — a 
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Besides developing handiness, "The Handy Boy" will encourage the 
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Mr. Hall's book is just the thing' to put into the growing- boy's hand to keep 
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*' No other volume con^^ains such a variety cf wholesome, instructive, and ente»> 
taining material, nor presents so many ways of making use of the things at hand." 
— Chicago Advance, 



For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid oa receipt of 
price by tlie publishers 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 




THE BOY CRAFTSHAN 

Practical and Profitable Ideas for a Boy*s 

Leisure Hours 

By A. NEELY HALL 

Illustrated with over 400 diagrams and 

workiner drawings 8vo 

117 VERY real boy wishes to design and make 
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l^/ews. 

If a boy has any sort of a mechanical turn of mind, his parents should see that 
le has this book — Boston Journal. 
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instituted. — Pittsburgh Gazette. 
Will be a delight to the boy mechanic. — Watchman^ Boston 
An admirable book to give a boy. — Newark J^ews. 

Tiii» Dooit is the bes« yet offered for Its ^asfft zaamber psacttcal aod pratKa&m 
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Parents ought to know of this book, — New Tork Gloht, 



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price by the publishers. 




U>THROP« LEE ^. SHBPARO COo_p BO^^flM 



HANDICRAFT FOR HANDY BOYS 

Practical Plans for Work and PJay with 
Many Ideas for Earning Money 

By A. NEELY HALL 

Author of "The Boy Craftsman" 

With Nearly 600 Illustrations and Working-drawings by 
the Author and Norman P. Hali 8vq Cloth 

THIS book is intended for boys who 
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text: 

Manual Training i Easily-made Furniture; Fitting up a 
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postpaid price by the publishers 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., Boston 




/ 




^1 

The Young Folks' Book of ideals 

By DR. WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH 

FuHy illustrated Svo Cloth 500 pages 

'HTHIS is intended to be the funda^ 
I mental book in the library of boys 
and girls between twelve and eighteen, 
and It deserves its place in Ii^ierest, full- 
ness, and worth. The great educator, 
G. Stanley Hall, has demanded secu- 
lar Bible," and it is not too much to say 
that whis meets the demand. One may 
go farther, and say that no other modem 
writer has so wisely, so safely, and at the 
same time so entertainingly provided what young people long 
to be told if only it be done capably and pleasingly. Dr, 
Forbush is a sincere man, and in both writing and speaking 
combines keen wit and great learning with a rich store 
personal experience in a way that entitles him to rank as the 
leading authority on making the best of youthful iifs. The 
book is produced in a style worthy of its really great contents. 

"A book of general culture for young people which deserves a funda- 
mental place in the library of boys and girls between twelve and eighteen, 
because of its interest, fullness and worth. The invaluable knowledge for 
young people imparted, is presented in a style so pleasing and entertaining 
that young readers will find it not only convincing, but intensely interesting. 
It is an ideal book to place in the hands of young people." — Zion's Herald. 

*' It is a book of unusual inspiration. It will help teachers and parents 
and will prove a stable balance for the young mind in forming its habits 
of thought and living. — Buffalo News. 

*' There is a combination of keen wit and great learning with a rich 
store of personal experience that entitles the author to rank among the 
leading writers of youthful life." — Atlanta Constitution, 

For sals by itJli booksellers or seat postpaid on receipt 
oi price by the publishers 

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co, Boston 



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